Following fast upon the heels of the Plastiki's trans-Pacific voyage to raise awareness about nonbiodegradable plastic in the oceans, a new paper in Biomacromolecules has suggested a way to make polycarbonate plastic disposal easier.

Mukesh Doble and Trishul Artham, of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, grew cultures of three different kinds of fungi on polycarbonate plastic (including the industrial-strength white-rot fungus, which has been shown before to effectively biodegrade industrial pollutants). Duble and Artham found that the fungi grew best on plastic pretreated with ultraviolet light and heat. On the pretreated plastics, the fungi achieved substantial decomposition of the plastic, with no release of BPA. On the untreated plastic, there was almost no decomposition at all over a twelve-month span. (As in images C vs. D, above). Read the paper here. 

It's the bisphenol A (BPA) content in polycarbonate plastic that makes it so difficult to dispose of, and 2.7 million tons of it are manufactured per year. Recent studies have suggested that BPA can be harmful to human health (as well as environmental health), prompting a search for responsible and effective disposal methods. (via Environmental Health.)