Researchers at the NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), among others, have discovered that a marine fungus can break down polyethylene, the plastic found at the bottom of the sea, as long as it has been exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight. They published their findings in the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment. In this regard, marine microbiologists from the NIOZ discovered that the fungus Parengyodontium album can decompose polyethylene (PE) particles, the most abundant plastic in the ocean. This discovery adds the fungus to a very short list of marine fungi capable of degrading plastic, of … Continue reading Marine Fungus Solution to Plastic Pollution: Breaking Down Polyethylene at 0.05% Daily—What This Means for Our Oceans