Researchers Find Superworm That Eats Plastic
June 12, 2022The University of Queensland
There might be light at the end of the tunnel for our landfill problems. Researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered a species of worm that can not only eat polystyrene but thrive on it. They believe that this could be the key to large-scale plastic recycling, which in theory may help us dispose of plastic waste effectively.
The superworm, known as Zophobas Morio can eat polystyrene because of a bacterial enzyme in its gut. Dr. Chris Rinke and his team discovered this by feeding said worms different diets over three weeks. Subsets of the group were given either polystyrene foam, bran or put on a fasting diet.
Through the use of metagenomics, they found several encoded enzymes with the ability to degrade polystyrene and styrene. The superworms shred the polystyrene with their mouths, then feed said material to the bacteria in their gut. The team’s long-term goal is to replicate this process in recycling plants where enzymes are engineered to break down plastic waste.
Speaking of the experiment, Dr Rinke said, “We found the superworms fed a diet of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had marginal weight gains. This suggests the worms can derive energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their gut microbes.”
Moving forward, co-author of the research, Jiarui Sun, says that they want to grow the same kind of bacteria in a lab in order to test its effectiveness at degrading polystyrene. If they are eventually able to implement this on a larger scale, we could be looking at a viable solution to our current waste problem.
