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Resembling giant mealworms, superworms (Zophobas atratus) are beetle larvae that are often sold in pet stores as feed for reptiles, fish and birds. In addition to their relatively large size (about 2 inches long), these worms have another superpower: They can degrade polystyrene plastic. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have linked this ability to a strain of bacteria that lives in the larvae's gut.
[...] The team placed 50 superworms in a chamber with polystyrene as their only carbon source, and after 21 days, the worms had consumed about 70% of the plastic. The researchers then isolated a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from the gut of the worms and showed that it that could grow directly on the surface of polystyrene and break it down. Finally, they identified an enzyme from the bacteria, called serine hydrolase, that appeared to be responsible for most of the biodegradation.
Journal Reference:
Hong Rae Kim et al. Biodegradation of Polystyrene by Pseudomonas sp. Isolated from the Gut of Superworms (Larvae of Zophobas atratus), Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01495)
Feed the plastic grocery bags to the worms, then feed the worms to the seagulls.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:38PM (2 children)
It disappoints me how back when polystyrene was invented and decisions were made to use it for consumer packaging, that those who made the decisions had completely and willingly ignored the disposal issue. Obviously it's an externalised cost.
"Let's invent this new material, quickly get it to market, sell sell sell, profit, profit. Nobody ask about the cleanup or where it'll all end up."
Only now we're trying to fix the mess. I mean, researchers spending time and funding trying to figure out how to de-plastic our world after all the fat rich execs profited off its invention and production years ago. We need to change this model and force companies to include disposal in their product cost, and force them to deal with it. Like the EU were doing with ewaste. Or find those execs and ping their retirement funds to fund the research and cleanup efforts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @04:12AM
Fat rich execs hire lean cheap journalists to invent horror stories about imagined dangers. Fat ignorant consumers gobble it up hook line and sinker, and run in circles and bleat for their masters to make them poor to save them from the bogeymen in their TV sets. Guess who are laughing all the way to the bank.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 29 2020, @02:12PM
I agree with you that companies that use plastics should be responsible for the lifecycle of the material (it should be true for all materials, actually, but let's stick with plastics for the moment).
Amid the bandwagon rush to demonize plastics, though, we should consider why plastics became so ubiquitous: they work, and work well. They have many advantages over glass, ceramic, metal, wood, and other "natural" materials. Getting rid of plastics to use more of the other materials would only shift the energy inputs to them, with sub-optimal outcomes.
The persistence of plastic in the environment is a problem because it's unsightly, but even if creatures don't learn to digest it it will be mechanically reduced to particles eventually. Life will continue.
Washington DC delenda est.