STORY: Scientists say this newly-isolated fungus is showing promising results in breaking down polypropylene.And that could make it a useful tool in the battle against the plastic waste crisis.:: This EarthThe marine fungus was discovered by a team at the University of Sydney, supervised by Professor Ali Abbas.:: Ali Abbas, Professor of Chemical Engineering"Typically plastics are very well known to be degrading over many, many years and even decades. This research has been showing that in fact fungi are able to degrade plastics much faster."Two years ago, the team discovered a terrestrial fungus capable of degrading polypropylene, or PP5, by 21% after 30 days and up to 27% after 90 days.That was the highest rate of degradation they had seen globally.But the marine-derived fungus, though still undergoing laboratory testing, has shown promise in exceeding that rate of degradation.:: Hawaii, United StatesPolypropylene is used in everything from food packaging and bottle tops to automobile parts and coat hangers.A report by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation found that PP5 made up 20% of all packaging in 2021 – 2022 financial year.:: Southampton, EnglandBut only around 8% was recovered for recycling. "The fungi produce enzymes that naturally break down materials like plastics."In the laboratory, the polypropylene is first pretreated with heat or UV light to mimic the natural weathering of plastics.It is then combined with the fungus in a liquid solution and left to incubate.Abbas says biology-based methods such as this are important in tackling plastic waste."...because this is nature's way of doing things, but from an industrial perspective, biology works at lower temperatures, therefore, it is less energy intensive."The team is currently working on optimizing the process so that it can be scaled up.Industry stakeholders and investors are also being engaged with to explore commercialization options.However, Abbas warns that degradation-via-fungus is not a silver bullet.:: Visegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina "There are other more significant steps that we as a society must take and this includes upstream design of new products and redesign and remanufacturing and reuse, and this step of design-led circular economy means that we will end up with less waste at the end of the process which is what we really need to focus on."