Plastic-eating fungi can reduce polypropylene pollution

Polypropylene (PP) is a polymer used in a variety of plastic products, but the difficulty of recycling the material results in a significant amount of non-biodegradable plastic waste that pollutes the environment. Thinking about it, Researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia have created a method that uses mushroom common ways to ingest and recycle polypropylene.

The researchers selected two fungi known for their ability to break down almost any substrate: Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album. Its powerful enzymes can break the materials down into simpler molecules so the fungal cells can absorb the contents.

The study, published in the scientific journal NPJ Materials Degradation, explains that scientists pretreated polypropylene with UV light because they found the fungi were more effective in a material previously treated with ultraviolet light. Before discovering the effectiveness of UV light, they also tested treating PP with heat and an acidic hydrogen peroxide solution (Fenton’s reagent).

The scientists performed a microscopic analysis by adding pre-treated polypropylene to a Petri dish with cork and found that the material decreased by 21% at 30 days and by 25% to 27% at 90 days.

Fungi eating polypropylene

“Plastic pollution is by far one of the biggest waste problems of our time. The vast majority are not recycled properly, which means they often end up in our oceans, rivers and landfills. “An estimated 109 million tons have accumulated in the world’s rivers, and there are now 30 million tons in the world’s oceans – sources estimate this will soon exceed the total mass of fish,” said Amira Farzana Samat, lead author of the study.

Despite research proving the effectiveness of fungi that ingest plastic, the researchers plan to further study the issue and further reduce the plastic degradation time before seeking investors to commercialize the method.