Plastic-Eating Fungus

[Raiden]

Plastics & Rubber Weekly - Amazon fungus eats polyurethane

Me fungusta.

[Human No More]

Impressive

[Marvellous Chester]

This is awesome. Nature always comes up with a solution <3

[Ateyo leSyaksyuk]

That is amazing that these fungi have adapted to thriving off these industrial waste products.
Q: Are you a mushroom?
A: NO! But I'm a real FUN GI !!! (Sorry. That joke occurs each time I hear theword!)

[iron_jones]

Awesome!!

Originally Posted by Ateyo leSyaksyuk

Q: Are you a mushroom?
A: NO! But I'm a real FUN GI !!!

[Empty Glass]

Super-cool stuff! Makes me hopeful...

[Eana Unil]

Originally Posted by the silver stag

this is awesome. Nature always comes up with a solution <3

!

[mikkowilson]

So what waste/output do the fungus produce?

That material has to go somewhere.

- Mikko

[Clarke]

If we're lucky, some alchohol and water.

[auroraglacialis]

Original article:
http://aem.asm.org/content/77/17/6076.abstract

Enzymatic degradation of PUR by both fungi (4, 5, 6, 19) and bacteria (11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 23) has been demonstrated. Soil fungi comprise the majority of organisms screened for PUR degradation activity (4, 5). Fungi of the genera Alternaria, Aspergillus, Phoma, Pennicilium, Plectosphaerella, Geomyces, Nectria, and Neonectria were isolated with access to mixed nutrient sources from buried PUR samples (4). Geomyces pannorum was the most commonly isolated PUR-degrading organism with this method (4). Few organisms have been shown to degrade PUR as a sole carbon source. Aspergillus niger has some reported degradation activity; however, it was observed to be quite slow, with visible signs of degradation occurring only after 30 days (7).
...
...

A cell extract of the active culture containing a critical serine hydrolase is able to clear the polymer in under 1 h using the PUR concentrations reported here.

I did not find what the products are. In the best case it would be CO2, N2 (or NO3, NH4) and water. The key in these degradations usually is to break the first bonds to make smaller molecules from the larger ones, after that, there are organisms present for many of the smaller perts that can degrade these. Not always though - some pesticides get degraded only to some point and the end product then still is toxic and stable.