Australian scientists at University of Sydney found through experiments two fungi that can break down plastics in 140 days. They are commonly found in plants and soil: Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album. “It’s the highest degradation rate reported in the literature that we know in the world,” Ali Abbas, a chemical engineering professor at the university, told media. “It is scaling up which is very much similar to any kind of fermentation process,” he explained. Researchers will now try to make the degradation process faster and more efficient.
Actually just 5% of plastics were actually recycled into new items and more plastic is being produced, so the new finding is a big hope to help umanity to clean the Earth of plastic. The research process could take the next three to five years. Plastic recycling remains a major challenge in the waste industry. However, „the technology is only half the solution,” Lisa Ramsden, a senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA declared. A study from 2022 determined that humans were generating 400 million tonnes of plastic waste per year.
