Fungus that eats plastic – and could help clean up our oceans

A FUNGUS that ‘eats’ plastic could help to clean up rubbish polluting the world’s oceans, according to a report.

The study by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said the species found in a rubbish tip in Islamabad, Pakistan, produces an enzyme that can break down plastics in weeks rather than hundreds of years. Experts are looking more closely at how it works before considering whether it can be adapted to degrade a wider range of plastics and produced in commercial quantities, according to the State of the World’s Fungi study.

Dr Ilia Leitch, an expert in plant and fungal biology at Kew, said: ‘The fungus is using enzymes to break down the plastic to provide food – in simple terms, it is eating it. We need to identify those genes and then we can widen the use. They could be put in marine fungi to help clear the plastic in the oceans. We are just at the tip of the iceberg in our understanding of fungi.’

The report warns many species of fungus are under threat as a result of habitat loss, pollution and climate change.