waste
These plastic-hungry fungi in China might just be the key to solving the world’s waste
- Dr. Peter Mortimer, a South African mycologist, has been studying fungi in China’s Yunnan province for nearly 12 years.
- Last year, he and his team discovered four unrelated species of fungi that digest plastic and latex, a component of natural rubber.
- Some 6,000 species have reportedly been discovered in Yunnan, but Mortimer believes there are so much more.
- Mortimer says the newly -discovered species could be the key to solving the planet’s waste problem.
- Throughout their research, Mortimer’s team has discovered and published at least 1,000 species of fungi.
Some species of fungi in southwest China’s Yunnan Province could help solve the world’s waste problem, according to a scientist who recently discovered them.
Those fungi, Dr. Peter Mortimer said, happen to be voracious eaters of plastic and rubber — materials that account for at least 44% of the world’s waste, as per World Bank data.
Filipino Engineer Uses Recycled Plastic Waste to Create Chairs for Schoolchildren
Filipino engineer Winchester Lemen is a mechanical engineer from the southern Philippines and runs Envirotech Waste Recycling to turn plastic garbage into chairs.
Envirotech Waste Recycling (EWRI) began making chairs when a visitor came to his plant to ask if he could make something from recycled plastic, and the engineer presented prototype chairs made of melted plastic from landfills. The plastic garbage is collected, shredded, cleaned, melted and molded. After that, they are assembled, sanded and painted.
Chinese Factory Uses 1 Billion Cockroaches to Eat 55 Tons of Food Waste a Day
A factory in eastern China is raising one billion cockroaches to help process tons of food waste every day.
The plant, located in Jinan, Shandong province receives 55 tons of kitchen waste a day — a minuscule fraction of the 1.3 billion tons wasted by the world each year.
Chinese Company Caught Spraying 3,000 Tons of Acidic Waste on Public Streets
A drug company in China was fined and forced to shut down after spraying over 3,000 tons of highly-concentrated liquid waste on the streets last week.
Bairui Biomedical Technology, located in Jiangsu Province, used a truck guised as a cleaning services vehicle in disposing the yellow green-colored waste it collected for more than a year.
Pakistani, Chinese Scientists Discover ‘Plastic-Eating’ Fungus in Islamabad Garbage Dump
A recent discovery by a team of scientists from China and Pakistan has the potential to revolutionize plastic waste management for good.
According to the Dawn, the researchers discovered that the fungus “Aspergillus tubingensis” feeds on plastic in a garbage dump in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
How South Korea Reduced Food Waste By 300 TONS a Day
South Korea has managed to reduce food waste in amounts other parts of the world can only imagine accomplishing for now.
In Seoul alone, the volume of waste decreased by 10%, or more than 300 tons a day, compared to four years ago.
