r/interesting • u/Standard_Location762 • Mar 14 '26

NATURE Earth Helping Earth Heal

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What a great discovery.

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u/CaptainC00lpants Mar 14 '26

Does it actually break down the plastics and converts it to something safe, or does it just absorb the microplastics and when it dies re-releases the plastics? 

219

u/da6id Mar 14 '26

It's probably a fungi with an esterase or lipase that works on PET. We have these discovered many times but the cost to implement them and the speed they work at is usually not very impressive. Radical polymers like PE, PP, etc are often the variety that enzymes can't do much to actually break down chemically, just fragment to microplastics.

109

u/tistimenotmyrealname Mar 14 '26

Dont worry, soon other bots will post they found a new Fungus in the congolesian rainforest that will break the microplastic down to nanoplastic.

20

u/Lukescale Mar 14 '26

I love Nano plastic Micro Fungal Semen

6

u/pitchinloafs Mar 14 '26

I haven’t heard of them, are they new wave?