Eating Plastic

Pestalotiopsis Microspora is a very special kind of fungi that, in the future, can have a variety of different uses. It is an endophytic fungi that is able to consume and digest polyethylene, which is found in a majority of household and industrialized plastic products. In fact, it can live on a diet exclusively consisting of polyethylene. On top of that it can survive in anaerobic environments, or in other words airless environments.

 

Pestalotiopsis microspora was discovered by a group of students at Yale University. It was discovered that it could eat polyethylene and from there was introduced to a number of projects and researchers.

 

People around the world are using this fungus to do amazing things. For instance, there is one popular project that is looking to use pestalotiopsis to convert plastic into something edible.