Fungi says Goodbye to Plastic

Mycologists are on the verge of solving three of humanities most prominent issues; Humans dependence on plastics. The unending accumulation of plastic waste. And food scarcity for growing populations. With the help of fungus, humans will soon be phasing out the use of plastic while eliminating the past waste it has generated. All while being able to feed people with the excess.

The modern worlds abundant use for plastic started out as a blessing, however slowly turned into a curse as its presence permeated into every possible corner of the environment. In its current state it seems to be a necessary evil. But it does not have to be this way, there are new viable options being worked on by heroic minds. As many of you are aware plastic is so problematic because it is non-biodegradable, it doesn't break down, but rather builds up. It is also a less than ideal resource because most formulas to make plastic use crude oil as the main ingredient. This is all further compounded when the world produces an overwhelming, 280 million tons of plastic waste per year. The majority of this waste goes unrecycled and completely undealt with.

The company Ecovative ( https://ecovativedesign.com/) is a pioneer in creating sustainable alternative resources in order to phase out the harmful over use of plastic. They are able to utilize mycelium, the complex root network system of fungus, to make a wide range of products. Such as: packaging material, furniture, adhesives and much more. They grow the mycelium on natural mediums, such as wood or compost. Once its grown strong they place it into a mold, which can be any shape. The mycelium then grows into the mold, taking its shape. In the final steps they remove the mold and dry the remaining fungal structure so that it hardens and is no longer able to produce fruiting bodies. The final products can have a range of strengths, and are all completely biodegradable. On top of this Ecovative says all of the mycological products are fire and heat resistant.

The build up of plastic has continued to be a growing burden on the natural world, as is the growing human population. All of these people require vast amounts of food resources. If the solutions for mass food production are not sustainable then it will only hurt humans in the long run. There needs to be work done into developing truly sustainable techniques for producing mass amounts of healthy food.

Researchers at, Fungi Mutarium, are doing that and so much more. They are creating sustainable techniques which also eradicate existing waste. It is a win win situation. Their team has been working to develop a technique to turn toxic plastic into nutritious food. The process begins by placing a piece of plastic under an UV light. This completes the final steps of sterilization and makes the plastic more malleable. The sterilized plastic is then placed in a gelatin mold, made from edible agar, where it is inoculated with developing mycelium. The mycelium then grows into the mold digesting the plastic, completely converting it into more mycelium. When the final product is ready for consumption there is no longer any plastic remaining. What remains tastes like mushrooms. The research needs further development, but the taste can be altered by adding flavors to the agar.

It is interesting to know that this process can be similarly replicated with metals rather than plastic. However the final result would be toxic to eat. Known strains of mycelium are able to break down metals. Yet they are unable to fully digest and reconstitute the metal entirely, the way they are able to with plastic. It would be dangerous to eat due to the lingering bits of metal still remaining in the developed mycelium. Perhaps somewhere out there there is an unknown strain of fungus which can achieve this, just waiting to be discovered.

This also raises the subject of using fungus for recycling things such as plastic and metal not to make food, but simply to make new products. Such as what Evocative is doing. The world could use this fungus method to completely recycle existing plastic waste, something that is difficult to do. So rather than use compost(an already readily available resource) they could use plastic waste.

Human society has benefited from its overindulgence on plastic long enough, it is time for us to pay the bill we left running on natures tab. Not only is it time for us to phase out its usage, but time to clean up that which has been a consequence of it. Fungus along side mycologists give us, as a world, the tools to do this. But the blessings of nature do not stop there, in its generosity the fungus doesn't just remove our trash, but it transforms it into nutrition we need! With the beginning of research like this we are at the dawn of a new era, in which we have the tools to be able to purposefully reengineer our environment on a molecular level.

Works Cited:

https://ecovativedesign.com/

http://www.livinstudio.com/fungi-mutarium

https://daily.jstor.org/company-uses-mushrooms-grows-plastic-alternatives/

https://www.fastcompany.com/3039801/this-home-grown-fungi-will-eat-your-leftover-plastic-and-then-you-can-eat-the-fungi