Mushrooms - the only species that protects the earth from harmful solid waste

Small creatures digest both plastic to help the future be better, human civilization more sustainable.

'Nature has produced solutions for hundreds of thousands of years. We are just discovering these solutions, 'said Sue Van Hook, a mushroom researcher working for Ecovative.

This finding has great potential, because in the past 70 years, we have produced and discharged a lot of plastic into the environment. In 2013 alone, the world produced about 300 million tons of plastic products globally.

While some plastic products can be recycled (about 8%), their shelf life is too long, and conventional environmental mechanisms cannot break down the complex chemical structure of plastics.

Thanks to digestibility, old computer keyboards or plastic forks are not located in a landfill or in millions of tons of plastic thrown away outside our oceans.

Help humanity get rid of ordinary plastics

The fiber system of fungi can digest the whole resin.

Visualizing a mushroom, you can think of a familiar mushroom and mushroom trunk emerging from the ground. However, much of the mushroom's life actually exists under the ground as a web of filament-like fibers called strands .

Fibrous systems play an important role in maintaining a living and dead balance in the ecosystem. But this little mushrooming life can also lead in creating a better, more sustainable future for human civilization.

An example is that in 2012 researchers from Yale University in the United States discovered a strain of the fibrous system in the Amazon that can digest plastic.

This fiber-digesting fibrous system, called Pestalotiopsis microspora , can help us reduce the accumulation of non-biodegradable waste. At the same time, other types of fiber systems can help humankind escape normal plastics.

At Ecovative, an environmentally friendly company based in Albany, New York, researchers have developed low-cost products based on fiber systems, which have superior advantages over other types. Traditional products of the same type.

One of Ecovative's products, Myco Foam, is used by Dell and other companies to replace plastic foam. Myco Foam is made entirely of mushroom and plant material, while plastic foam like Styrofoam is an oil-based product that contains cancer-causing chemicals.

This means that while Myco Foam will be safely absorbed into the soil after its purpose has been fulfilled, the plastic foam will permanently become hazardous waste.

Some products of Ecovative are even more useful than traditional products. The first product that the company developed was a mycelium-based insulation sheet designed to replace petroleum-based foam insulation.

Both products are well insulated, but fungal insulation products do not burn while conventional products can easily catch fire. Ecovative mushroom researcher, Sue Van Hook, has been studying fungal ecology for the past 45 years. She said that in mushrooms there are many things that we can learn if we will listen carefully.

'Nature has produced solutions for hundreds of thousands of years. We are just discovering these solutions. We know that they are effective solutions because otherwise they are already extinct , 'Van Hook said.

'Mushrooms have to adapt to a lot of changes over the past 1.7 billion years, so they have a variety of genes that can meet different challenges' . Throughout the history of Earth's ups and downs, fungi have had to adjust to large-scale extermination stages and huge steps of change.

This has given mushrooms a variety of properties that we can take advantage of.'They can bind objects together very tightly or loosely, with elasticity or rigidity depending on how we treat other variables.

There are many properties of plastic strength and compressive strength that we can get from them based on the growth conditions, nutrients and fungal strains we choose to use, ' said Van Hook.

An Ecovative product called Myco Plate is currently used in furniture, soundproof tiles and surf boards, and will soon be approved for construction materials. This new and more rigid Myco sheet is designed to replace the standard grain sheet with unmatched durability, but no toxic formaldehyde binder.

Van Hook said: 'The fungus acts as a sticky resin to bind plant fibers together. They can be wood pellets, or agricultural products that can regenerate better in the life cycle. ' And unlike geomagnetic plastic glue, the fiber system is completely sustainable and renewable. Van Hook said: 'It replicates itself when it grows, so it is a self-made adhesive that keeps growing, as long as it has some food'.

Enhance the immune system for the environment

Photosynthesis is useful for the environment of fungi.

Besides reducing waste plastics, mushrooms have many other possibilities. Some are used as food. Other numbers are used to make medicine. Mushrooms also support our lives in many ways that we may not recognize.

They do cleanup work for the Earth. When plants and animals die, the fungus helps decompose the discarded body, completing the life cycle. Van Hook said: 'Some fungi act in a symbiotic relationship with plant root systems'.

'For decomposing fungi, their macrophages feed on molecules that plants have built through photosynthesis, [photosynthesis] is the process of taking carbon dioxide and water when there is sunlight and creating go out. Mushrooms break down this sugar into carbon dioxide and water. That is the reversal of photosynthesis. '

In herbal medicine, fungi such as Ganoderma, shiitake mushrooms, chaga mushrooms and cordyceps are used to enhance the human immune system. In the book 'Using Fibers: How to Use the Fungus to Save the World' , researcher Paul Stamets says the fiber system can help boost the environment's immune system.

'Whether the habitat has been damaged by human activities or natural disasters . mushrooms can help recover. When the fiber generation spreads through a habitat, the depth and moisture content of the soil increases, increasing the load capacity of the environment and the diversity of environmental components' , Stamets writes.

In order to keep the life cycle revolving and the immune system healthy, the fiber system is an essential ingredient to make soil healthy. Listen to Nance (pronounced Nancy) Klehm, a Chicago-based fifth-generation gardener is currently writing a book about the land: 'Land can do a lot of things if you cooperate with it. But if we treat it badly, it just becomes dirt. '

Klehm's organization, Social Ecologies, is working with local residents to build a healthier living environment. One of the techniques taught by the Social Ecologies is biological reproduction - an activity that uses biological tools including fungi, bacteria, and plants to make soil healthier.

While Klehm thinks of soil quality only in terms of growth of plants and animals, Klehm thinks it plays many important roles.

'It's not just about food, it's the way most people become interested in this, because they want to grow some tomatoes. Healthy soil makes our air quality good. It absorbs our carbon emissions, absorbs rainwater and prevents flooding in the soil layer, ' Klehm said.

Mushrooms are everywhere.

Klehm says that fiber systems not only maintain moisture in the soil and provide porosity, they also form a nutrient network, acting as carbon stores and absorbing pollutants.

'We collect mushrooms to the place we want to support trees, but about 80% of plants match the fungus in a certain way,' she said. 'We also use mushrooms when there is a specific inorganic chemical that we want to handle. Mushrooms are famous for their ability to clean hydrocarbons and petroleum products ".

The process of land revival may take several years or even decades to complete, but it is much less expensive and more comprehensive than the conventional method.

Klehm said that when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleaned up a site, they often removed and transported by truck the contaminated soil to a landfill, or cleaned with chemicals or burned.

It is then often possible to install a permeable fence, add about a meter of limestone, and then cover it with new topsoil. Klehm said that EPA really cares about her land reclamation method, but the bureaucratic nature makes EPA slow to approve. However, on a community scale, biological restoration projects are taking place around the world.

'First Nation residents (Canada) are working really hard with this,' Klehm said. 'For those who have a tradition of being attached to the land, their culture is broken if the land is not healthy. In an urban area, we don't realize that, sticking to the land, so we despise and treat it badly. "

Mushrooms are essential for life on earth in many ways. The more we understand and use their power, the brighter our future.

'There is an obsession with mushrooms, and that's why I think it has been blocked so long,' said Van Hook. 'Now is the time to overcome fear, and believe that nature always takes care of us and will continue to take care of us.'