Mold Found to Decompose Biodegradable Plastics Effectively

Image by Amanda Rudkin. Some Rights Reserved.

Japan's National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences announced on October 22, 2008, that it had discovered a kind of mold living on the leaf surface of a gramineous plant that can effectively decompose biodegradable plastics. This mold, isolated from barley leaves, excretes a highly concentrated splitting enzyme into its culture fluid. The institute observed that 91.2 percent of multi-purpose agricultural film made of biodegradable plastic (by weight) was decomposed within six days after the produced enzyme liquid was sprayed on the film.

In Japan, approximately 150 thousand tons of used plastics are discarded from the agricultural and fishery industries while 10 million tons are discarded in total (according to the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). To reduce labor for collection and the amount of plastic waste, biodegradable plastic is being adopted for agricultural use. On the other hand, increased degradability of biodegradable plastics typically undermines durability. Therefore, biotechnological development is required to offer both high durability and degradability.

Inspired by the fact that leaf surface of gramineous plants has a similar structure to that of biodegradable plastics, the institute searched for fungi living on the plants with high decomposing potential and finally discovered the mold with outstanding capacity for decomposing biodegradable plastics. Taking advantage of this feature, further technological development is expected. At the same time, this finding revealed the potential of fungi living on plants to be applied for material usage, which has never been focused on.

- National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
http://www.niaes.affrc.go.jp/index_e.html

Posted: 2009/03/27 06:00:15 AM