Disposable diapers can take as long as 500 years to break down, which means the very first disposable diaper created 40 years ago is still sitting in a dump somewhere. Now, Alethia Vázquez-Morillas, a scientist from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City has found a way to turn that 500-year span to a mere 4 months, by using oyster mushrooms to accelerate the breakdown. Oyster mushrooms break down cellulose, the same substance that makes up the bulk of disposable diapers.Putting the two together results in 90% decomposition of the diapers in just 2 months, with full results in 4. In this particular application people would be most interested with the fact that the mushrooms get rid of diaper waste and not really care whether they were edible afterward. Read more from Discovery
Source and much thanks as always to David Schaller of Sustainable Practices, former EPA Region 8 sustainability coordinator at http://www.sustainablepractices.info
