When I was pottering around Google the other day, looking for things to put in our Thursday Thoughts newsletter, I stumbled across the most amazing bit of trivia and just had to share!
There is a mushroom that eats plastic.
Yes you read that right. A mushroom that eats plastic... pretty epic don't you agree??
It all started when researchers started to help solve the growing problem of plastic pollution. They began looking for methods by which plastic can be decomposed rather than be in landfill.
This led to the discovery of plastic eating mushrooms by the students from Yale University.
Sound too good to be true? Keep reading….
The mushroom, called Pestalotiopsis microspore, comes from the Amazon rainforest. Astonishingly, these mushrooms can survive on plastic alone as its primary food source and survive… even without air or light!
Modern landfills are dry and pretty oxygen poor. This makes it impossible for anything to decompose properly, even organic material struggles! However, Pestalotiopsis fungi are capable of plastic decomposition in anaerobic conditions, making our fungi friends an ideal candidate for use in landfills for helping to produce organic matter.
If you found that as cool as we did, don't forget to subscribe to our Thursday Thoughts newsletter. You'll get weekly access to more cool trivia, the latest news in the eco space and a community feature highlight!