Plastic eating fungi get to work

Hard to recycle plastic has successfully been biodegraded by two strains of fungi in a new laboratory experiment led by researchers at the University of Sydney.

The researchers reported their success in breaking down the common plastic polypropylene in a study just published in npj: Materials Degradation, using two common strains of fungi.

Polypropylene accounts for roughly 28 percent of the world’s plastic waste.

Typically found in soil and plants, Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album were able to break down polypropylene after it had been pre-treated with either UV light or heat, reducing the plastic by 21 percent over 30 days of incubation, and by 25-27 percent over 90 days.

The study’s lead author from the university’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, PhD student Amira Farzana Samat said polypropylene was ‘a common plastic used to make a huge variety of everyday products like food containers, coat hangers and cling film, but it only has a recycling rate of only one percent, meaning it is overrepresented in plastic waste and pollution globally.

The researchers hope their method could one day reduce the vast amount of plastic polluting the environment and lead to a greater understanding of how plastic pollution might biodegrade naturally under certain conditions.

They will now enhance the overall efficiency in degrading polypropylene before seeking investment to scale the technology and develop a small-scale pilot.

Professor Ali Abbas from the School of Chemical and Molecular Engineering and Chief Circular Engineer at Circular Australia said: “Despite the massive scale of plastic production and consumption, there has been very little attention paid to plastics degradation under environmental conditions, and our understanding of how plastics can be degraded is limited.

“One big question our result has raised is – what are the naturally occurring conditions which can fast track the degradation of plastics? We seek to further explore the role of biological processes offered by fungi and other microorganisms.”

Picture: University of Sydney