Here's an idea that could really grow on you. What if you could train mushrooms to eat cigarette butts and use the leftover plastic to create new recyclable products?
Cigarette litter is a real pain in the butt, so Australian charity No More Butts and Melbourne-based mycologists Fungi Solutions have teamed up to start CigCycle, a research project which will determine whether Australian fungi can be used to create a viable recycling stream from cigarette butts.
According to No More Butts, approximately 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded as litter worldwide every year, with Australia contributing around 8.9 billion butts to this figure.
No More Butts founder Shannon Mead said it's important to understand the impact cigarette butts had after they ended up in landfill.
"Even when people do the right thing and dispose of their cigarette butts the correct way, once they hit the waste stream and end up in landfill, they begin leaching damaging pollutants like arsenic and lead into waterways and soil systems. It takes about 15 years for plastic cigarette filters to break down," Shannon said.
