Mushrooms are not just a delicious pizza topping. They could also tackle plastic waste, oil spills and other toxic pollutants. Mycoremediation, the use of fungi for ecological restoration, is a nascent field that could change the way we fight pollution.

“Fungi are metabolic wizards,” writes mycologist Merlin Sheldrake, in his 2019 book Entangled Life. Unlike plants, they do not have chlorophyll. Instead they get nutrients through mycelium, a root-like system. This network of threadlike hyphae secretes powerful enzymes that allow fungi to break down some of the toughest materials on the planet and convert them to nutrients.

It is this power to break down complex molecules into simpler ones that mycoremediation seeks to harness. Basically, any carbon-based product is food for fungi. Scientists have uncovered a fungus that eats polyurethane plastic. Fungi have been deployed to clean up oil spills in the Amazon, contaminated soil in Wisconsin and detoxify soil and water after wildfires in California.