What may seem useless waste to some, is a precious source of useful chemicals to others: from food and green refuse, Italian researchers have isolated a substance that degrades organic pollutants. The substance, named AC8, forms when a mixture of bio-waste is composted for 110 days. It consists of several high-molecular weight organic groups, remnants of the refuse matter, and generates reactive radicals and oxygen species.

These were able to degrade hazardous pollutants like 4-chlorophenol, Alessandra Bianco Prevot and her co-workers at University of Turin showed. The types of reactive species formed, depends on the concentration of AC8 used in the experiment.

• Waste-Derived Bioorganic Substances for Light-Induced Generation of Reactive Oxygenated Species
  A. Bianco Prevot, P. Avetta, D. Fabbri, E. Laurenti, T. Marchis, D. G. Perrone, E. Montoneri, V. Boffa
  ChemSusChem 2010.
  DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201000237