Skip to main content

Fungi as a Solution to Our Landfill Problem

 By Anahi Tinajero

Fungi as a Solution to Our Landfill Problem

    A rise in population has increased the demand and waste of childcare products such as diapers, especially in urban areas. On average, a child uses 6.9 diapers per day (4.6 of these contain only urine) and most are disposed with general waste and accumulate in landfills and dumps, however, diapers can be degraded with the help of a fungi. Pleurotus ostreatus is an edible fungus that is able to degrade agricultural waste such as the cellulose that is found in diapers. In fact, 50.2% of most diapers are composed of cellulose pulp, which P. ostreatus can degrade with common co-substrates found in urban cities. A study conducted in Mexico city investigated P. ostreatus as a biological treatment for used baby diapers and found that diapers (without plastic) as substrate and wheat straw used as co-substrate had a median reduction weight of 70.8%. Since wheat straw is not very accessible in urban cities, the study also considered co-substrates such as grass (median of 53.5%) and withered leaves (median of 58.1%). Even though the plastic components of diapers will not be degraded by P. ostreatus, even with a co-substrate, it is worth emphasizing that the degradation of more than half of the diaper will result into a decrease of waste for the already full landfills and dumps. Using P. ostreatus for the degradation of waste with high biomass content, such as diapers, would be a great sustainable way for urban cities to combat their landfill challenges. 

Average composition of baby diapers (in weight percentage) available in the Mexican market. (Espinosa-Valdemar et al., 2015)

Reference

Espinosa-Valdemar, R., Vásquez-Morillas, A., Ojeda-Benítez, S., Arango-Escorcia, G., Cabrera-Elizalde, S., Quecholac-Piña, X., Velasco-Pérez, M., Sotelo-Navarro, P. X. 2015. Assesment of Gardening Wastes as a Co-Substrate for Diapers Degradation by the Fungus Pleurotus ostreatus. Sustainability. 7:6033-6045.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Jacinda SolisNovember 18, 2020 at 7:11 PM

    Imagining the amount of diapers that the world has gone through in the last century is very concerning to fathom about. Like have they all been degraded at this point? This was interesting to read about as I did a fungal community as well, like who knew that a natural growing organism we see on a daily or every once awhile can actually be a solution to help maintain the earth's sustainability. Hopefully the next course to see will be a wider scenario where they start trying multiple other fungi and see what they have to offer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. M MendezNovember 30, 2020 at 4:38 PM

    I really like that they tested other co-substrates that could be considered waste products. Can the material at the end of this process be used in public gardens (for non-edible plants), given that it would not leach toxins into the soil?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source?

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source? Source: Tennessee Valley Authority (public domain) Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and the three major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Natural sources of these gases consists of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds as well. Lakes are environmentally beneficial because they are active, changing, and are important regulators of the three major greenhouse gases. That being said, lakes and reservoirs are known to be built for the purpose of generating power. So much so that water has been retained by dams that the global sea level rise has lowered approximately 0.02 inches per year in the span of 50 years. And since fossil fuels are not utilized to to produce hydroelectric power, lakes are known for their "green" energy sources alternative. Which is a common misconception because it is those lake and reservoirs that release powerful greenhouse gases into t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leading Innovation: The Untapped Side of Organic Agriculture

By: Jasmine Rodriguez Organic farming as we know it is has taken off as the main system to diversify plant production to a global standard. The innovation and attention to small details of a sustainable metric excels on all four cylinders such as productivity, environmental impact, economic viability and social wellbeing. With high demands globally, there is certainty to a good balance in how farmers produce crops to meet every sustainable goal required. However, the importance in maintaining sustainability is required to for infrastructure to the economic barriers of organic practices to diversify agricultural farming systems. Some practices that lack sustainability include lack of information and knowledge, unreliable infrastructure and economic halts, and misperceptions to cultural biases. A challenge to the farming system is policymakers forming a certain environment to a greater complex arrangement to a standard sustainable distribution of policies with food and ecosystem security...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plastic in the Ocean Floor and Shoreline

 When it comes to the use of plastic, we use them all the time in objects that contain the drinks to the laptops that we use for schoolwork. Once they are thrown away, sometimes they can land in the oceans especially when they can leave close there. Because of this, it has caused a big harm to the marine life environment as more plastic debris has enter the ocean water. It can also cause a harm in the birds as well as thousands of birds can ingest the plastic in confusion of food. This was mention in a study by Jose G.B. Derraik, an study that was mention was in 1995 when Robards et al. examined the guts of seabirds two different times during an interval or 10-15 years that there was an increase in plastic ingestion between the year gaps. Now this is not only implying to birds, but they can also be found in the marine life as well. The reason for this is because not only can they be found in the ocean floor, but they can also be mistaken as food for some of the lifeform as well. Th...
1 comment
Read more