How Do These Fungi Work?
The fungi operate via very powerful chemicals that can actually break the bonds holding plastic together. This is called biodegradation. It means that plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, so that digestion for the fungi is easy. Plastic breaks down into basic elements in due course and does not pose any hazard to the environment.
Why Is This Important?
Our oceans are filled with plastic refuse. This hurts sea animals and makes the water dirty. These fungi could be used to eat part of the plastic, which would really help to clean up the oceans. Scientists are quite fascinated by this idea and are doing further investigation into how it could work.
Not a Perfect Solution
Though plastic-eating fungi do sound amazing, they are not some magic fix to all our problems with ocean pollution. These fungi have slow activity and only digest certain kinds of plastic. Also, the water in open oceans sprawls vast, making it impractical to put up the fungi there.
We Still Need to Reduce Plastic Use
Though such fungi do lend some hope, they remain a minute portion of the solution to the bigger problem. The most critical contribution to the problem at hand is using less plastic in the first place. We need to also recycle more and find better ways of getting rid of plastics.
Other Ways of Cleaning the Oceans
Other ideas on how to clean up the oceans are also being put into action by scientists and volunteers. These include big machines that vacuum plastic from the sea and special nets that catch the floating trash. New materials being worked on could replace plastic. If combined with the plastic-eating fungi, all of these efforts might start to make a difference over time.
While plastic-eating fungi are an interesting discovery, surely they can help but only a little with ocean pollution. They are only one tiny part of the solution. We all have to work together to use less plastic and take better care of our oceans.
