MAY 24

Diapers are up there with styrofoam when it comes to things that last forever in landfills.  Surveys of landfills have estimated that it takes hundreds of years for them to break down and when billions are thrown away each year in the U.S. alone, you've got quite a large mess.   A few countries have started diaper recycling plants, but most of the world's dirties get thrown in the trash.

Amazingly, the solution may be in your stir fry.  Alethia Vázquez-Morillas, a scientist at Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City, has found that oyster mushrooms can break down 90 percent of the material in the poop catchers in only two months, and in four months, break them down completely.  And you can still eat the mushrooms, though you may not want to.

Diapers take forever to degrade because their main ingredient is cellulose, which hangs around for quite a while.  The oyster mushrooms have enzymes that break down cellulose, which serves them well when they grow on dead trees or other plant material in the wild.  So, when grown on soiled diapers full of cellulose, the mushrooms just do their job.  Better-than-plastic packaging and now diaper disposal -- is there anything mushrooms can't do?

Dr. Vázquez-Morillas says the mushrooms used in their experiments were still safe to eat because the diapers were treated with steam first to kill any bacteria, though in this particular application, I imagine 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.

via The Economist

Comments (10)

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Let the rubbish be, Low-rated comment [Show]

Edible afterwards...
written by Sarah, May 24, 2011

Just speculation, but maybe they tested for edible safety after the diapers because, even though humans may not care about eating the mushrooms, the local wildlife probably would jump on that. Testing would ensure the safety of the local wildlife that ingested the mushrooms.

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written by Monk, May 25, 2011

I vow to never eat mushrooms when I visit Mexico. I sure don't want to be snacking on essence of diaper toxins.

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written by Cerise, May 28, 2011

I thought diapers take hundreds of years to degrade because they are mostly plastic? Cellulose is considered eco-friendly & comes front plants, so it doesn't seem to make sense that it is the problem with disposable diapers hanging around and not the plastic.

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written by Anna Bryant, June 02, 2011

Well I, for one, love oyster mushrooms, and oyster mushrooms are the best. If they test OK...I'd like to give this a try myself. How does this work? Do you know who I could get more info about this?

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Bio degradable diapers are here folks
written by Rich Davine, June 02, 2011

Eco Quest Limited, a West Australian company makes 90% bio degradable diapers called "Little Tackas nappies" which are made from bamboo and are as soft and reliable as any diaper out there. Eco Quest is also listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the trading code of ECQ. They also produce 100% bio degradable baby wipes. These products are available from hundreds of outlets accross Australia and on the Internet.
Check it out people!

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How close to cradle to ccradle can you get
written by Alexander van Nek, June 02, 2011

Seems a great solution, most peculiar however that people have doubt about the food safety of the mushrooms. If these are unfit for human consumption, questions arise around how we feed babies.

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more safe to eat than almost anything in the supermarket today
written by Gordon, June 02, 2011

I don't know why people are squeamish about eating the mushrooms - what do you think the common button mushroom is grown on? (answer: compost and MANURE, plus chemical fertilizers). There's nothing wrong with human poop unless it's heavily dosed with medicines - which hopefully a babies aren't.

We should really be working harder to utilize human waste - instead of trying like hell to make it go away (polluting rivers and groundwater in the process) we could use it to wean ourselves from oil-based fertilizers. Though of course the chem-co's and agri-giants would prefer the status quo.

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Canada! Land of Promise! Land of Hemp!
written by Uncle B, August 30, 2011

Yankee Doodle's "Ass-Hole" laws do not permit Canadian Hemp products into their country! Such a pity! Soon, we wll export our hemp diapers, hemp products, oil, coal, iron ore, liquified natural gas, even Ontario manufactured goods via the Ontario Northland Railway to Port Churchill, then to Asian markets for unmanipulated Yuan. No "magical" depreciations even before payments rendered, no "mystical' manipulations, no thumb of the feds on the scales for every deal for U.S. "Funny Money" just full payment in cash up front from a gratedful and honest trading partner - We do this now with our "Soft-Wood" after the criminal "shake - down" the U.S. gave us just for having superior medical care, better social safety nets than American Capitalists are willing to yield to their peons!
We might sell you Yanks safe, sustainably sourced hemp fiber, or even fully manufactured diapers, if only we could cut through the political bull Shiite, and make a 'fair' deal!

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Energy Monitoring: Critical for Energy Conservation | EGControls
written by Energy conservation, September 02, 2011

Enzymes are nature's catalysts and in this case the enzymes present in the mushrooms speed up the rate of cellulose degradation.

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