Flipping through the pages of a recent garden center business periodical, I came across a quick paragraph about a mushroom that will eat plastic. Pestalotiopsis microspora is a species of endophytic fungus capable of breaking down and digesting polyurethane.

Originally identified in fallen foliage of common ivy, Hedera helix, in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1880 by mycologist Carlo Luigi Spegazzini, who named it Pestalotia microspora.

Its polyurethane degradation activity was discovered in two distinct P. microspora strains isolated from plant stems in the Yasuni National Forest within the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest by a group of student researchers led by molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel as part of Yale University's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory in 2012.

It's the first fungus species found to be able to subsist on polyurethane in anaerobic (no oxygen required) conditions. This makes the fungus a potential candidate for bioremediation projects involving large quantities of plastic. Imagine injecting landfills with fungal spores at the base and letting them grow to the surface. The potential for this fungus and others like it are limitless.

Tremendous increases in the manufacture and consumption of plastics over the years have led to numerous ecological and economic concerns. The persistence of synthetic polymers introduced into the environment by human industry poses a major threat to natural ecological systems.

The low cost and ease of manufacture have increased global plastic demand with the production of 1.5 million tons in 1950 to 245 million tons as of 2006. Remember that film back in 1967 “The Graduate” and that famous quote as Mr. McGuire, has just one word for Benjamin: “plastics.” Despite recognition of the persistent pollution problems posed by plastic, global production is still increasing, with the largest increases expected in developing nations.

The sheer volume of plastics produced each year presents a problem for waste disposal systems. And while many new laws are going into effect to curb the increasing use of plastics in the U.S. and Europe, they do nothing to address, for example, the garbage patch twice the size of Texas that's currently floating in the Pacific Ocean.

Researchers are currently working on synthesizing a strain of plastic eating mushroom that can survive and thrive in sea water. And if that's too big a feat for these mushrooms to take on, scientists are still optimistic that this discovery will at least change the way we view and use plastic. For example, they envision at-home recycling kits and community recycling centers with fungi systems built in to utilize this process.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest, most biodiverse rainforest in the world and it is shrinking every year. According to satellite data compiled by a deforestation monitoring program, 3,050 square miles of the rainforest was destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018.

That is just under the size of the state of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. How many more miracle mushrooms might we miss once the Amazon is gone?