Copperfingertips - Represent The Human Race

Mushrooms aren’t just for psychedelic trips, they can clean the planet too

Whether you love Funghi Trifolati or you are utterly grossed out by the mould on brie cheese: mushrooms are extremely important in many ways, like saving our planet from drowning in plastic waste.

~ the pondering muse🌙

Did you know you can grow mushrooms to eat by feeding them plastic? Or that mushrooms evolved this capability themselves? It’s true, plastic eating fungi has been found in landfills in Pakistan and it’s so prolific that it can break down polyester polyurethane in a matter of weeks.  Mushrooms are great at bioremediation, so good at it fact, that they can suck radiation and heavy metals from the soil, eat plastic, petroleum, and remove CO2.  

The mini farm designed to grow these amazing plastic eating fungi is called the “Fungi Mutarium” and it allows for the cultivation of Schizophyllum commune and Pleurotus ostreatus. The steps to degrade the plastic are simple and can be found below:

- UV sterilize the materials and chambers.

- Place the plastic into a “growth sphere” an egg shaped pod of agar agar.

- Add diluted mycelium culture to the “growth spheres” within the incubator.

It’s simple isn’t it? And the end product resembles an edible food bowl or cup that you can put salad in. Research is still being done to make sure it’s 100% safe to consume and no doubt free of micro-plastic residue, but even if this doesn’t get the green light for edibility, it would be a great way to process plastics at home with our current recycling issues here in the U.S. 

You can read more here.

Clean & Restore: Vintage Dr. Martens — Dr. Martens are one of my favorites because of their durability. Although, I think just as important as durability is taking the care to clean, restore and repair items that have led long and reliable lives. 

The village of Kamikatsu in Japan has taken their commitment to sustainability to a new level. While the rest of the country has a recycling rate of around 20 percent, Kamikatsu surpasses its neighbors with a staggering 80 percent.

video / youtubechannel : Great Big Story

“This is my first cabbage! You know, a lot of times they’re kind of soft, but this one is solid! It’s going to be good eatin’!“  “What are you going to make with it?” “Well, this one I’m giving to my parents. You have to give the first one away or you just spoil the whole spirit of gardening.”

The lavender held memories, the eucalyptus remembered all the tears, and the poppies were always there to see the years crawl by.

Three plants that are reminders of my childhood home in Northern California.

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Everyone should garden

Sometimes when I’m talking to people about sustainability they’re like, “well, not everyone wants to garden” and it’s like, on the one hand I’m sure that’s true because of the diversity of the human experience means that someone out there would hate gardening no matter what.

But on the other hand…. what???? Why would someone NOT want to experience the miracle of life and then have the freshest ingredients possible to cook with??? All while releasing no green house gasses and being super cheap???

Humans have literally lived forever surrounded by plants with cultivating plants as a vital part of how we have lived for thousands of years and you’re telling me that we should stop doing that because some people don’t like to garden??

Gardening isn’t a hobby! It’s a way of life that we all need to be living if we can because our current way of life is unsustainable! Also everyone that can garden should so we can support the people who can’t. Gardening is what made us human and we can’t stop now.

when the capitalists die out either thru global warming or revolution will we be able to start homegrown internet

I’m using a plant to catch a leak in the ceiling. “No such thing as waste in a permaculture system,” right?

Speaking about alternative ways of growing things, have you seen the bottle tower gardens invented by Willem Van Cotthem? His youtube videos are a bit amateurish but the plant results look amazing. I prefer straight up recycling plastic bottles but that IS a neat upcycling idea and it's a water-efficient and space-efficent way of gardening 8D

Oh nice, I hadn’t seen these before, but they look ingenious!

A great way to repurpose waste plastic too, especially as not everywhere has plastic recycling facilities. The water efficient part is appealing too. Solutions like this would be helpful for people living in more arid climates!

Here’s a quick DIY guide for anyone who’s interested.