news @ nature.com - Fungus eats enduring plastic - Voracious microbe points way to recycling resins.

news @ nature.com - Fungus eats enduring plastic - Voracious microbe points way to recycling resins.:

"the resins are so tough that they cannot be melted and reused. About 2.2 million tonnes of phenolic resin are produced in the United States every year, around 10% of the country's total plastic production.

Some scrap phenolic resins are simply ground up and used in other plastics. Another experimental recycling method uses heat and chemical solvents, but this is expensive and produces dirty by-products.

Adam Gusse and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse wondered whether white-rot fungi might be able to attack the resins. These fungi are commonly seen on rotting tree stumps and manufacture an array of enzymes able to break down the tough lignin in wood. Lignin has a similar chemical structure to phenolic resins, because it is also made up of ring-like molecules strung together.
"