Fungi could be the key to winning the war on plastic, leading scientists at Kew Gardens has said.

The first ever report on the state of the world’s fungi has today revealed that if the natural properties of fungus can be harnessed and developed, plastic could be broken down naturally in weeks rather than years.

Kew Gardens and a team of over 100 scientists from 18 countries have compiled the paper, which shows how different organisms can decompose plastics, clean up radioactive material and even speed up the production of biodiesel.

Found last year by a team of Chinese scientists on a rubbish dump in Pakistan, Aspergillus tubingensis breaks down bonds between plastic molecules and then splits them using its mycelia. The process takes a matter of weeks, rather than the decades it usually requires for plastic to naturally disintegrate.

“This ability has the potential to be developed into one of the tools desperately needed to address the growing environmental problem of plastic waste,” says the report.