Forum Post: Mushrooms that eat plastic
Posted 12 years ago on April 14, 2012, 5:54 p.m. EST by gestopomillyy
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This content is user submitted and not an official statement
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/more-mere-magic-mushrooms-154207424.html
this could be amazing!
One of the fungi we're looking at is called pestalotiopsis microspora. It was discovered by a group of Yale researchers on an expedition in Ecuador and can subsist on polyurethane alone in airless environments, like the bottom of a landfill.
The other comes from a couple of college friends who discovered that the sticky substance on the bottom of mushrooms called mycelium could be turned into a glue and when that glue is combined with corn husks and other food byproducts it takes on a form similar to Styrofoam. Their company, Ecovative wants used Styrofoam to become mulch, not waste.
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Good find.
Unfortunately, most of the plastics in landfills are ABS, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene, but this is still really neat.