It aims to be a solution for breaking down materials that are very hard to break down physically, such as most plastics, which can actually take thousands of years to decompose. If that happens, it’ll become one of the first super plausible ways to ‘chemically recycle’.Ĭhemical recycling is among the hottest new ideas in the waste management industry (the proper one, not like, Tony Soprano). Well, if scientists can figure out a way to synthetically create the two specific enzymes that break down the plastic, it could pave the way for allowing us to break down loads of waste quicker than previously, and on a mass scale. “To our knowledge, no such enzyme has been identified” before, academics subsequently wrote in academic journal. They were curious as to how an insect could seemingly eat plastic, and found those two very interesting enzymes were dissolving the plastic. They had put them into a plastic refuse bag, only to find the bugs started eating the bag, leaving holes everywhere. An amateur beekeeper (who also happens to be a professional scientist) was cleaning out a hive infested with the larvae.
How on earth did we make this discovery? / How did we find out that wax worms can dissolve plastic?Īs with many great things, we figured this out by chance. If there’s a bit of flexibility in your plastic, chances are there’s polyethylene involved. It’s used in everything from squeezy bottles to bin bags. Significantly, it’s also the most commonly produced plastic in the world right now, accounting for about 30% of plastic worldwide. The wax worm’s saliva contains two enzymes that can degrade (fancy word for dissolve or decompose) polyethylene, a solid but flexible plastic. Like wax worms, a type of moth larva that infests beehives, which might be the answer to many of the planet’s plastic problems. Some insects always have been, and some we’re finding out, might very well soon be. These bugs are essential for life as we know it. For instance, in a tablespoon of soil there’s more living organisms than there are people on planet earth.
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