Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, think they've found a way to use mushrooms to clean up the environment.
The winning team in the university's annual Das Family Student Competition presented their idea to a panel of industry leaders last week, proposing that mushrooms be used to decontaminate soil in areas affected by industrial pollution, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The winning team, FungiFix, says the mushrooms can then be used to create concrete blended bricks, "safely locking in the contaminants and providing an ecologically sustainable and affordable building material."
The idea was inspired by a trip to Costa Rica, where researchers found that mushrooms can be grown in soils contaminated by industrial waste, the Times notes.
The students received $20,000 in prize money to develop their idea.
The runners-up were Hopeful Havens, which proposed using food waste to create methane gas for cooking, and EcoFlush, which proposed using toilet flushing to reduce water usage, the Times reports.
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