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However, the bristle worms have a somewhat softer chitin -- the so-called beta chitin -- which is particularly interesting for biomedical applications.

One tricky aspect of recycling, though, is that sometimes the recycling process is chemically intensive, and this is the case for recycling one of the world's most abundant materials -- chitin.

Chitosan is a sugary polymer that can be easily made from the chitin shells of shellfish and has already found its way into wide-ranging commercial applications.

In these tests, they used chitin fragments to trigger an immune response in the cells as chitin is an essential component of the cell walls of microorganisms such as molds and fungi.

The mycelium fibers from the fruiting body contain proteins, chitin, and polysaccharides, which make them ideal for making packaging materials, soundproofing, textiles, and much more.