ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2013
Fungal communities associated with the biodegradation of polyester polyurethane buried under compost at different temperatures.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Environmental Identification of Novel Enzymes for Polyurethane and Polyamide Degradation.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Yeast-Mediated Plastic Biodegradation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Kinetics and Potential Mechanisms of LDPE and PBAT Microplastics Biodeterioration by Soil BacteriaMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Substrate-specific microbial community shifts during mesophilic biodegradation of polymers in compost amended soil.Biodegradation · 2025Article
- Recycling and Degradation Pathways of Synthetic Textile Fibers such as Polyamide and Elastane.Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ) · 2025Review
- Myco-remediation of plastic pollution: current knowledge and future prospects.Biodegradation · 2024Review
- Identification and recombinant expression of a cutinase fromApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Biodegradation of Polyurethane by Fungi Isolated from Industrial Wastewater-A Sustainable Approach to Plastic Waste Management.Polymers · 2024Article
- Plastic Fruit Stickers in Industrial Composting─Surface and Structural Alterations Revealed by Electron Microscopy and Computed Tomography.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Biodegradation of Typical Plastics: From Microbial Diversity to Metabolic Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Exploration and Evaluation of Secondary Metabolites fromMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Biodegradation of polyurethane by the microbial consortia enriched from landfill.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2023Article
- Investigating Different Local Polyurethane Coatings Degradation Effects and Corrosion Behaivors byMaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Use of Mycelial Fungi to Test the Fungal Resistance of Polymeric Materials.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Biodegradation of Biodegradable Polymers in Mesophilic Aerobic Environments.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Starch Nanocomposite Films: Migration Studies of Nanoparticles to Food Simulants and Bio-Disintegration in Soil.Polymers · 2022Article
- Biodegradation of plastic polymers by fungi: a brief review.Bioresources and bioprocessing · 2022Review
- Exploring the polyurethanolytic activity and microbial composition of landfill microbial communities.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2021Article
- Plastics: Environmental and Biotechnological Perspectives on Microbial Degradation.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2019Review
- Biodegradation of polyhydroxybutyrate by3 Biotech · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastics play an essential role in the modern world due to their low cost and durability. However, accumulation of plastic waste in the environment causes wide-scale pollution with long-lasting effects, making plastic waste management expensive and problematic. Polyurethanes (PUs) are heteropolymers that made up ca. 7% of the total plastic production in Europe in 2011. Polyester PUs in particular have been extensively reported as susceptible to microbial biodegradation in the environment, particularly by fungi. In this study, we investigated the impact of composting on PUs, as composting is a microbially rich process that is increasingly being used for the processing of green waste and food waste as an economically viable alternative to landfill disposal. PU coupons were incubated for 12 weeks in fresh compost at 25°C, 45°C, and 50°C to emulate the thermophilic and maturation stages of the composting process. Incubation at all temperatures caused significant physical deterioration of the polyester PU coupons and was associated with extensive fungal colonization. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis and pyrosequencing of the fungal communities on the PU surface and in the surrounding compost revealed that the population on the surface of PU was different from the surrounding compost community, suggesting enrichment and selection. The most dominant fungi identified from the surfaces of PU coupons by pyrosequencing was Fusarium solani at 25°C, while at both 45°C and 50°C, Candida ethanolica was the dominant species. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the composting process has the potential to biodegrade PU waste if optimized further in the future.
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