The media coverage of the health dangers of BPA has really reached a fever-pitch these days and, thanks to that coverage, many companies are removing it from their products. While that is wonderful, there are still many BPA-containing plastics out there and 2.7 million tons of it being made every year. How do we make sure all that plastic is disposed of safely?
Scientists have come up with a way that they believe decomposes polycarbonate plastic without releasing BPA. The scientists, Mukesh Doble and Trishul Artham, pretreated polycarbonate with ultraviolet light and heat and then exposed it to three types of fungi known for their pollutant remidiation abilities.
After 12 months, the pretreated plastic had substantially decomposed without releasing any BPA, while the control plastic that was not pretreated before being exposed to the fungi showed almost no decomposition.
via Science Daily