Fighting climate change, one laundry load at a time

Copenhagen

A DANISH biotechnology company is trying to fight climate change - one laundry load at a time. Its secret weapon: mushrooms like those in a dormant forest outside Copenhagen.

In the quest for a more environmentally friendly detergent, two scientists at the company, Novozymes, regularly trudge through the mud, hunting for oyster mushrooms that protrude from a fallen beech or bracken fungi that feast on tough plant fibres. They are studying the enzymes in mushrooms that speed up chemical reactions or natural processes such as decay.