“Scientific research has shown that fungi can degrade toxic and persistent waste materials such as plastics, converting them into edible fungal biomass.”
This novel application comes just a few years after a group of Yale students discovered a species of fungi on a trip to Ecuador as part of a Rainforest Expedition and Labratory led by a molecular biochemist. The team continues to work with university researchers to make the process faster and more efficient. Even in the absence of light and air, the species they examined thrived in landfill environments, suggesting potential near-future and larger-scale solution for existing waste sites as well. Comment on Facebook Fungi Farm Prototype Turns Waste Plastic into Edible Treats
Breaking down one of the most difficult types of trash, this incredible working incubator turns sterilized plastic remnants into nutritional biomass humans can consume and digest, in short: food. The shape of the FU is designed so that it holds the plastic and to offer the fungi a lot of surface to grow on. Next to the property of digesting toxic waste materials, they are also commonly eaten. Fungi is cultivated on specifically designed agar shapes that the designers called FU. Livin Studio, an Austrian design group known for innovative work on insect farms, has built a working model of this growth sphere (dubbed the Fungi Mutarium) that takes parts of mushrooms usually left uneaten and grows them into fresh snacks. From the creators: “We were working with fungi named Schizophyllum Commune and Pleurotus Ostreatus. Texture, taste and flavor depend upon the strain of fungus, but reportedly can be quite strong as well as quite sweet. The FUs are filled with plastics.
