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[Lucky]

Polyurethane, developed in the 1940s, is a strong, durable material that's used in everything from appliances and vehicle parts to paints and glues. While some of it can be recycled, all polyurethane is eventually either burned (which releases carbon dioxide and other toxic chemicals into the atmosphere) or ends up in a landfill, where it remains for the foreseeable future, because its chemical bonds are so strong that the material doesn't degrade.

That's what makes a recent discovery in the jungles of Ecuador so incredible: Scientists have found a fungus that can eat plastic.

A group of students in Yale University's Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course-which includes a trip to the jungles of the Amazon to gather and study samples-discovered the fungus among microorganisms they collected last year. Pestalotiopsis microspora lives on or inside the tissues of host plants without harming them, and it can survive on a diet of nothing but polyurethane. The fungus also thrives in anaerobic environments like the poorly lit, oxygen-starved areas deep within landfills-making P. microspora a potentially viable alternative to just letting plastic sit.

So my first thought is that no matter how much the human race tries to screw up the world, the Almighty has ways to fix our blunders.  My second thought is that I sure don't think this fungus (mushroom) will taste good, even saute in lots of butter.  

[wwaggett]

I can see it now, a 100 foot Pestalotiopsis microspora coming out of a landfill to eat everything in sight.... It could happen....

[Lucky]

Yep, sounds like a great script for a new modern day horror flick...so much plastic for it to eat that it grows and grows....there is NO STOPPING IT 

[matap]

Very very interesting.  It is indeed amazing. 

[Gumbo]

That is interesting, shows that after we are all long gone the earth will clean it's self up and try again. 

[MRVTX]

I can see it now, a 100 foot Pestalotiopsis microspora coming out of a landfill to eat everything in sight.... It could happen....

But then Godzilla would take it down.   

[sherri]

Thought provoking

[hipshot]

Sounds like I need to lock up the kayaks...........

[VTXLady53]

Sounds like I need to lock up the kayaks...........

Na.........good excuse to buy a new on...............LOL