Scientists Discover Worm That Has The Ability To Eat Plastic
Scientists in Spain have discovered a wax worm eating plastic materials and leaving an antifreeze compound behind confirming degradation.
Scientist Federica Bertocchini of the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain found wax worm infestation in a beehive and keep it on a plastic. She tied the plastic bag tightly and put it in other room.
Bertocchini was surprised when she saw the worms scattered throughout the entire room. She said that the worms escaped by chewing the plastic bags. She and her colleagues have described 100 wax worms chewing polyethylene bags.
Those wax worms can shred the plastic shopping bag after 12 hours. The worms weren’t just chewing it, but they have the ability to eat and digests plastic materials.
Researchers conducted an experiment to confirm this event by putting some worms in a plastic. After 14 hours, around 13 percent of the plastic was gone and those worms system can really digests plastics.
The researchers also found that the wax worms were leaving ethylene glycol, the main compound used in antifreeze.
Polyethylene packaging could take between 100 to 400 years to degrade naturally, according to some researchers. In 2011, researchers found a fungus that could degrade common plastic materials faster.
In 2014, another research team found a bacteria in the digestive system of wax worms that could degrade polyethylene in just two months. But the wax worms discovered by Bertocchini can do a larger and faster damage.
Bertocchini also explained although the worms can be a solution to the plastic waste, they could not survive in zero-oxygen environment. She also said hopes to discover the element used by worms to break down plastics.
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