According to scientists, this method could help reduce the large amount of plastic that pollutes the environment, especially the world‘s rivers and oceans.
Scientists at the University of Sydney have successfully degraded, using two common fungal strains, one of plastics harder to recycle, polypropylenewhich represents the 28% of this type of waste worldwide.
A laboratory experiment showed that the fungi ‘Aspergillus terreus’ and ‘Engyodontium album’, which are normally found in soil and plants, managed to decompose different products made from polypropylene (metallized film, granules and flexible polypropylene), after having previously treated them with ultraviolet light, heat or Fenton’s reagent, according to the study published in the scientific journal npj Materials Degradation last Friday.
Surprisingly, these organisms were found to reduce the polymer by a 21% for 30 days and up to 25-27% after more than 90 days. These results have prompted Australian experts to further investigate the role of biological processes offered by fungi and other organisms to accelerate the degradation of plastics.
“Polypropylene is a common plastic which is used to make a wide variety of everyday products, such as food containers, clothes hangers and plastic wrap, but has only a recycling rate of 1%said lead study author Amira Farzana Samat, arguing that this low rate contributes to the excessive accumulation of this type of waste and environmental pollution.
Scientists say that this polymer is infrequently recycled due to its short life as a packaging material and, furthermore, it is regularly contaminated with other materials, which requires the development of new recycling methods that have minimal environmental impact.
‘Superpoder‘ in the fight against plastic waste
According to Samat, it is estimated that they have accumulated 109 million tons of plastic waste in the world‘s rivers and 30 million tons in the oceans, and sources predict that this colossal amount will soon will exceed the total mass of fish. In this context, the researchers believe that their method could help reduce the large amount of plastic that pollutes the environment, since fungi can break down almost any type of substance.
“It is superpoder it is due to its production of powerful enzymes, which are excreted and used to break down the substrates into simpler molecules that the fungal cells can then take up,” explained another of the research authors, Professor Dee Carter, an expert in mycology.