Mycoremediation’s Role in Healing Polluted Soils and Waterways
Fungi to the Rescue:
When most people think of environmental clean-up technologies, their minds typically go to high-tech machinery, chemical treatments, or perhaps microbial bioreactors. But hidden beneath the soil, and often overlooked in the grand scheme of environmental engineering, lies one of nature’s most powerful and ancient tools for detoxification: fungi. Mycoremediation—the use of fungi to remove or neutralise pollutants from the environment—is gaining international attention as an affordable, sustainable, and highly effective method for restoring ecosystems damaged by industrial activity, agricultural runoff, oil spills, and more. With their expansive underground mycelial networks and powerful extracellular enzymes, fungi offer unique advantages over traditional bioremediation techniques. At a time when climate resilience, circular economies, and regenerative technologies are urgently needed, fungi present a solution that is both ancient and cutting-edge.
This article explores how mycoremediation works, highlights recent breakthroughs and real-world applications, and evaluates the opportunities for deploying fungal-based bioremediation across the United Kingdom. It also considers how BioGlobe, as a leader in organic enzyme-based environmental solutions, can integrate mycoremediation into its mission, creating synergies with its ongoing work in soil, water, and coastal restoration.
The Hidden Power of Fungi
Fungi have existed on Earth for more than a billion years, playing a crucial role in ecosystem development. Unlike plants, fungi do not photosynthesise. Instead, they break down organic matter by secreting enzymes into their environment. These extracellular enzymes can degrade a wide range of complex substances including lignin, cellulose, hydrocarbons, and even some heavy metals. Their ability to digest tough materials, including many industrial pollutants, makes them ideal candidates for bioremediation.
The body of a fungus consists largely of mycelium, a sprawling underground network of thread-like structures known as hyphae. This network allows fungi to spread over large areas, connecting with plant roots, decomposing organic matter, and altering soil chemistry. Because of this expansive reach and powerful enzymatic activity, fungi are capable of absorbing, immobilising, and transforming a wide array of environmental toxins.
In mycoremediation, specific species of fungi are cultivated and deployed in polluted environments where they act as biological filters or decomposers. They may be grown on substrates such as straw, wood chips, or agricultural waste, then introduced into contaminated soil or water systems. Once established, the fungi begin to break down the pollutants, converting them into harmless or less toxic compounds. What distinguishes fungi from bacteria or chemical treatments is their ability to tackle complex organic molecules, including those that are persistent in the environment and resistant to degradation.
Mechanisms of Mycoremediation
Mycoremediation works through several complementary mechanisms. First and foremost is enzymatic degradation. White-rot fungi, such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Pleurotus ostreatus (commonly known as oyster mushrooms), produce lignin-degrading enzymes like laccases, manganese peroxidases, and lignin peroxidases. These enzymes are non-specific oxidisers, meaning they can attack a broad range of pollutants including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dyes, pesticides, and industrial solvents.
Second, fungi can absorb metals and other inorganic pollutants through a process called biosorption. Fungal cell walls contain polysaccharides and proteins that bind with metal ions, removing them from water or soil. Some fungi can even precipitate metals as insoluble compounds, effectively immobilising them and reducing their bioavailability.
Third, fungi modify their surrounding environments in ways that favour ecosystem recovery. They improve soil structure, increase organic matter, enhance microbial diversity, and create conditions that support the growth of plants and beneficial bacteria. This ecological restoration aspect of mycoremediation is particularly important, as it enables a shift from mere pollution removal to regenerative land and water stewardship.
Real-World Successes: Fungi in Action
Around the world, mycoremediation has moved from theory to practice. In Ecuador, fungi have been used to clean oil-contaminated soils in the Amazon rainforest. Oyster mushrooms grown on sugarcane waste were applied to petroleum-soaked soil, where they degraded hydrocarbons significantly within a matter of weeks. In India, similar trials have demonstrated the capacity of fungi to reduce the toxicity of industrial effluents from textile and tannery industries.
In Sweden, research teams have employed Trametes versicolor to remove pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater. These include oestrogens, antibiotics, and antidepressants—compounds that typically pass through conventional water treatment systems unfiltered. The fungi were immobilised on filter beds and maintained in bioreactors, effectively reducing pollutant loads without the use of harmful chemicals.
In the United States, mycoremediation projects have gained popularity among permaculturists, farmers, and conservationists. Paul Stamets, one of the field’s most prominent advocates, has led initiatives where fungi are used to clean up diesel spills, rebuild forests, and detoxify post-wildfire ash. In one experiment, fungal “mycobooms”—absorbent barriers filled with straw and fungal mycelium—were used to filter oil-contaminated runoff from highways and industrial sites.
UK Applications and Opportunities
The United Kingdom presents a particularly promising landscape for the advancement of mycoremediation. Decades of industrial activity, urban expansion, and intensive agriculture have left behind a legacy of soil degradation, chemical runoff, and aquatic pollution. Mycoremediation offers a nature-based solution that is compatible with the UK’s goals for net-zero emissions, biodiversity restoration, and climate adaptation.
In agricultural regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire, pesticide and nitrate runoff from farms continues to affect river systems and wetlands. Fungal biobeds—shallow pits filled with organic material colonised by fungi—can act as on-farm biofilters, reducing the movement of pollutants into waterways. These systems are low-cost, easy to maintain, and can be integrated into existing agricultural practices.
Urban brownfield sites, especially in former industrial areas of the North and Midlands, also stand to benefit. These areas often contain petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and chlorinated solvents—substances that fungi are well-equipped to degrade or immobilise. Introducing fungal mats to these sites could accelerate soil regeneration, enabling land to be repurposed for housing, green space, or community agriculture.
Another key area of application is wetland and riverbank restoration. Fungi can be embedded in erosion control mats, coir rolls, or sediment traps to both stabilise banks and process incoming pollutants. In areas affected by flooding, fungal bioremediation offers a way to process the nutrient and pollutant surges that typically follow storm events, reducing the ecological stress on aquatic ecosystems.
The Benefits of Fungi over Traditional Remediation
One of the core strengths of mycoremediation lies in its sustainability. Unlike chemical remediation, which often involves toxic by-products, or mechanical removal, which is expensive and disruptive, fungal solutions are gentle, decentralised, and low-energy. Fungi do not require synthetic additives or high temperatures. They can be grown on waste materials such as straw, sawdust, or spent grain from breweries. Once deployed, they continue to work as long as environmental conditions are favourable.
Mycoremediation is also inclusive. It allows local communities, farmers, schools, and environmental groups to participate in meaningful restoration work. Mushroom cultivation is relatively easy to learn and can become part of a circular economy that includes food production, soil improvement, and ecosystem healing.
Furthermore, the ecological co-benefits of fungi are unmatched. While detoxifying pollutants, fungi also improve soil health, support plant growth, and increase microbial biodiversity. They enhance carbon sequestration by promoting humus formation and stabilising organic matter in soil. They foster the return of pollinators and insects. In short, they regenerate not just the physical environment, but its living systems.
Challenges and Considerations
As with any environmental technology, mycoremediation is not without challenges. One of the primary concerns is environmental variability. Fungi are sensitive to temperature, moisture, and pH. Establishing and maintaining fungal colonies in the field can be difficult, especially in harsh or unstable environments. Ensuring the survival and activity of the mycelium requires careful site assessment and, in some cases, ongoing management.
Another challenge is scalability. While small-scale applications of mycoremediation are well-documented, scaling up to industrial or municipal levels requires significant infrastructure, research, and investment. Growing and transporting large volumes of fungal substrate, designing appropriate delivery systems, and ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations all require coordination and planning.
There are also questions about consistency and monitoring. Unlike chemical treatments that produce predictable outcomes, mycoremediation outcomes can vary depending on local conditions and microbial interactions. Measuring pollutant degradation and verifying compliance with environmental standards can be complex.
Finally, there is a need for broader awareness and regulatory support. Fungi remain underutilised in many environmental programmes, partly because of a lack of familiarity among decision-makers and funders. Establishing guidelines, standards, and incentives for mycoremediation would help mainstream the practice and unlock new opportunities for innovation.
BioGlobe’s Role in the Fungal Future
For BioGlobe, mycoremediation offers a natural extension of its existing work in enzyme-based, organic pollution control. The company’s expertise in deploying microbial and enzymatic systems for the treatment of sewage, algae blooms, and soil pollution positions it well to explore fungi as both standalone and complementary agents of remediation.
BioGlobe could begin by launching pilot projects that integrate fungi into its current field sites. For example, in areas where microbial consortia are used to treat nutrient runoff or coastal pollution, fungi could be introduced to enhance degradation and soil building. Joint trials could assess the comparative and combined performance of bacteria and fungi, building a deeper understanding of synergies and limitations.
Education and outreach will also be critical. BioGlobe can take a leadership role in training stakeholders—from farmers and councils to NGOs and educators—in the principles and practice of mycoremediation. Workshops, demonstration plots, and citizen science initiatives could all form part of a broader engagement strategy.
Partnerships with universities, environmental consultancies, and regenerative agriculture networks will further strengthen the knowledge base. BioGlobe could co-author research papers, co-host conferences, and collaborate on funded research calls focused on nature-based solutions and climate resilience.
Finally, BioGlobe has the opportunity to develop its own line of fungal bioremediation products. These could include pre-inoculated fungal mats, biobed kits, or substrate blends for specific pollutants or environments. By branding these products as part of a holistic environmental regeneration toolkit, BioGlobe can reinforce its identity as a pioneer in ethical, intelligent environmental healing.
Conclusion: Mycelial Networks as Regenerative Infrastructure
At a time when the planet is groaning under the weight of synthetic chemicals, degraded soils, and polluted waters, it is increasingly clear that the solutions we need may lie not in more chemicals, but in the deep intelligence of nature itself. Fungi, with their vast mycelial networks and enzymatic genius, represent one of the most elegant and underutilised tools for healing the Earth. Mycoremediation is not a silver bullet, but it is a potent and versatile ally in the quest for environmental recovery.
As interest in regenerative technologies grows, the time is ripe for the integration of fungi into mainstream environmental practice. The United Kingdom, with its diverse landscapes, rich ecological traditions, and pressing pollution challenges, is an ideal testing ground for this next wave of bioremediation. With leadership from organisations like BioGlobe, and a commitment to science, ethics, and sustainability, fungi could become central to the UK’s environmental renaissance.
Fungi remind us that resilience is built underground, in the quiet connections between life forms, in the steady decomposition and transformation of the old into the new. They invite us to think differently about pollution—not as a permanent scar, but as an opportunity for regeneration. Mycoremediation, in this light, is not just a tool, but a philosophy. And the sooner we begin weaving it into our environmental frameworks, the sooner we can begin to truly restore the Earth.
Bioglobe offer Enzyme pollution remediation for major oil-spills, oceans and coastal waters, marinas and inland water, sewage and nitrate remediation and also agriculture and brown-field sites, globally.
For further information:
BioGlobe LTD (UK),
22 Highfield Street,
Leicester LE2 1AB
Phone: +44(0) 116 4736303| Email: info@bioglobe.co.uk