Fungi transform unrecyclable building waste into low-carbon insulation
15d 11h ago by slrpnk.net/u/solo in fungus@slrpnk.net from www.bath.ac.uk
A common fungus can break down hard-to-recycle construction waste and turn it into sustainable insulation that rivals traditional and petrochemical-based options,
“One of the biggest challenges in construction is what happens to materials at the end of their life.
“ the fungus [is] doing two jobs at once; creating a sustainable insulation material and transforming challenging, and potentially harmful, waste into something valuable.”
This is a really cool use of white rot fungus! I hadn't read about this particular one being used for mycoremediation before but it makes sense - others (like oyster mushrooms) are capable of breaking down all sorts of long-chain polymers. It turns out the toolkits they've developed for breaking down stuff like tree lignin are versatile enough for lots of other stuff like dioxins. OSB (made from wood and glue) probably offers an interesting mix of materials for it to work through.
Edit: I added this to the writing community's worldbuilding wiki page on solarpunk building materials.