Just as one thinks there is no solution to the ever burgeoning problem of plastics, along come the whitecoats from Kew Gardens to offer hope, in the shape of mushrooms no less.
Dr Ilia Leitch , a senior scientist at Kew said “ We are in the early days of research, but I would hope to see the benefits of fungi that can eat plastic in five to ten years.”
Apparently a fungal mould found on a dump in Pakistan has the ability to decompose and break up plastics in weeks, rather than decades.
“This ability has the potential to be developed into one of the tools needed to address the growing environmental problem of plastic waste,” according to the latest scientific report entitled State of the World’s Fungi. The report is 92 pages and filled with astounding facts and figures, well worth a look at and downloadable from https://stateoftheworldsfungi.org/
