A marine fungus discovered by scientists can break down polypropylene plastic much quicker than any solution seen before, giving us a new weapon against our growing waste problem.
As Reuters reported and Yahoo shared, scientists at the University of Sydney found this ocean-dwelling fungus during research led by Professor Ali Abbas.
The fungus produces natural enzymes that attack polypropylene (PP5), a common plastic used in food packaging, bottle caps, and many everyday items.
The marine fungus discovery follows the university's earlier work with a land-based fungus that broke down polypropylene by 27% after 90 days. Lab tests suggest the new marine version works even better at eating plastic waste.
About 20% of all packaging is polypropylene, according to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation. Sadly, only 8% gets recycled, with the rest typically ending up in landfills or oceans.
In the lab, researchers first treat plastic with heat or UV light to copy natural weathering before mixing it with the fungus in liquid. This method uses less energy than other recycling approaches.
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"Typically plastics are very well known to be degrading over many, many years and even decades," Professor Abbas explained in a statement about the breakthrough. "This research has been showing that in fact fungi are able to degrade plastics much faster."
The team is working diligently to scale up the process and is in contact with industry partners to explore potential commercial applications. While promising, Professor Abbas cautioned that this isn't a complete answer to our plastic crisis.
"There are other more significant steps that we as a society must take and this includes upstream design of new products and redesign and remanufacturing and reuse, and this step of design-led circular economy means that we will end up with less waste at the end of the process which is what we really need to focus on," noted Abbas.
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