article - amazonian rainforest fungus eats polyurethane, potentially solving a big landfill problem

8/22/2019 ARTICLE - Amazonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solving a Big Landfill Problem

1/3

Previous Article: Hilarious " Theory

of Everything" Paper Provokes

Kerfuffle

Next Article: Today in Scientific

Papercraft: Anatomical Cross-

Sections

Amazonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solvinga Big Landfill Problem

14 COMMENTS

ByRebecca Boyle Posted 02.01.2012 at 3:17 pm

RELATED ARTICLES

The Top 10 New Species of 2011

Best Recycling Ever: Turning

Old Plastic Bags into Carbon

Nanotubes

Plastiki, the Boat Constructed

from Plastic Bottles, Sails into

Sydney After Pacific Crossing

TAGSScience, Rebecca Boyle, amazon rainforest,

biodegradable plastic, fungi, fungus,

microorganisms, new species, plastics,rainforest

Plastic Bags in Landfill Samuel Mann via Flickr

To the multitude of arguments for protecting rainforest biodiversity, heres a new addition: An Amazonian fungus could eat our most durable landfill waste. A group of students from Yale

found the fungus during an expedition to Ecuador and learned it breaks down polyurethane.

This plastic is one of those modern chemical compounds found in so many products, its pointless to count from Spandex to garden

hoses, for a start and it is prized for both its flexibility and rigidity. The problem is that like many other polymers, it does not break

down readily. This means it persists in landfills, as Fast Company points out. It burns pretty well, but that releases carbon monoxide

and other gases into the atmosphere, so its a nonstarter in most situations. Something that can degrade it naturally would be a better

solution.

The fungus calledPestalotiopsis microspora can subsist on a diet of polyurethane alone, and do so in an anaerobic environment,

according to the researchers who found it. The Yale team isolated the enzyme that enables this fungus to do its work and noted it could

be used for bioremediation.

Its odd to think of a microorganism eating up a durable synthetic material, but this would not be a first, by a long shot; bacteria and

fungi can break down lots of things. A bacterial species called Halomonas titanicae is eating the RMS Titanic, for instance. We just

need to know where to find these hungry species and the rainforest is a good place to look.

[Fast Company[

Robot

02/01/12 at 3:49 pm

Yes the first knee jerk feeling is we get rid of trash.

But also in life plastics are a good thing.

The first thought came into my mind, what if I have a plastic heart, heart

value or some other plastic thing in my body and I breathe this fungus

thing?

I like for this fungus to work, but it has to be manageable too.

.............................

Science sees no further than what it can sense.

Religion sees beyond the senses.

Link to this comment

azonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solving ... http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/rainforest-fungus-eats-...

3 2012/02/10 08:24 AM


2/3

ToomeyND 02/01/12 at 3:56 pm

In other news, the rainforest was cut down to make room for a new

landfill...


D13 02/01/12 at 4:21 pm

Wow, thats pretty awesome.

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to

realize the truth. There is no spoon."


-my name here- 02/01/12 at 4:34 pm

now why on earth would a fungus be able to metabolize polyurethane, and

an environment where none exists in the first place? that's what I would like

to know.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

why learn from your own mistakes, when you could learn from the mistakes

of others?

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is

comprehensible -Albert Ein


PsychosomaticRob

02/01/12 at 5:14 pm

Even if this was true, think about it:

What would the fungus exhale as a byproduct? Couldn't whatever gas it is

be potentially dangerous as well? And though the recycling of plastic is

very harmful with the release of carbon monoxide, we could still find a

potentially safer way to recycle it.

Plastic is also very useful, and you can't just get rid of it until a substitute is

found.

Also, how would people get the fungus and plastic in contact with each

other? You'd either have to put all the plastic over in the rainforest, or ship

the fungus to landfills if scientists couldn't just help it grow somewhere else.

But it would be pretty amazing if this was true.


BioZombie 02/01/12 at 11:09 pm

well i hope if this is the new thing for getting rid of plastic its done in a

confined environment dont need my plastic bowls eatin i would be one mad

guy if i woke up and my midnight cereal bowl was gone...lol...


TeXie 02/02/12 at 2:22 am

Life always finds it's way. It will be interesting when your window, attached

to the walls by PU-foam, falls out of the wall due to funghi attack.

Sometimes inertness is really useful.

Perhaps the politicians better should think about seeing the garbage as the

gold mines of tomorrow and start to push recycling on a big scale instead

of "landfilling" .


quseio2 02/02/12 at 3:28 am

my guess is the so called "rubber"trees are why it can eat poly,natural

rubber isn't to dissimilar to poly


bombastinator 02/02/12 at 5:06 am

It could cause another giant landfill problem though.

The liner used in most retired landfills to keep toxic waste from leaking into

the ground water is made of what? POLYURETHANE.

This is as much a potential catastrophe as a boon.


matsci1 02/02/12 at 6:41 am

Recycling is always an alternativeif people want to that is.

Here in Germany the garbage is separated into

Glass- deposited at drop off points located around the neighborhoods

Paper- special dumpsters or green garbage cans

Metal and Plastic---special yellow trashbags

Bio---vegetable, food and cooking waste goes in the brown garbage can

Rest garbage--- Grey garbage can. Anything that does not go into the

other catagories.like a painted board or dry wall.

There is actually very little that needs to be landfilled here. There are

incinerating plants in a lot of cities that burn the garbage generate heat orLink to this comment


3 2012/02/10 08:24 AM


3/3

Copyright 2009 Popular Science

A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

To comment, please Login.

electricity.

D13 02/02/12 at 7:26 am

7 billion people create a lot of garbage. all possibilities should be

considered. most of the people in India/China/Africa are not recycling and

those are the biggest populations.

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to

realize the truth. There is no spoon."


Porphy

02/02/12 at 10:59 am

I'd hate to think they let this go mainstream for application and didn't

consider the ramifications of it being ingested and possibly killing someone.

It seems obvious to modify the fungi or find a way to use the enzyme

specifically instead of the fungus.


beefymclovin 02/02/12 at 11:56 am

id like to the rate it eats it, possible byproducts, is it safe for human contact,

and does it plan to take over the world?

i can see some scientist gene splicing that code for digestion into a

bacteria that digests plastics...


Onihikage

02/03/12 at 5:28 pm

I know of a team that's built a machine which uses a particular microwave

frequency to break down rubber back into oil, very cleanly. But have they

gotten any news?



3 2012/02/10 08:24 AM

article - amazonian rainforest fungus eats polyurethane, potentially solving a big landfill problem

Documents