Did you know that some 2 million plastic bags are used every minute around the world? This is a serious problem and it is one that is difficult to ignore. Most people consider plastic to be ‘out of sight, out of mind’ but it is not very far out of sight any longer. It is filling up the landfills and clogging up the oceans. It’s a problem that we must face or we are all going to suffer the consequences, including our children.
The problem of plastic has been an issue for years and up until recently, there was a lot of debate over what to do about it. That debate may be coming to a close, however, thanks to a worm that was discovered. This worm was completely unexpected but now that scientists are aware of it, they recognize the potential of what they can do.
Although they call it a worm, it is actually a caterpillar, known as the waxworm. It is a parasite to bee colonies and it likes to eat wax. You can also purchase them to feed to your terrarium pets, such as lizards. It also is good for animal research because mammals can be replaced with the waxworm for certain experiments. As you already know, it was recently discovered that it can help to save the planet.
The discovery that this caterpillar can digest plastic was accidentally discovered by Prof. Federica Bertocchini. She is a beekeeper and she put these worms in a plastic bag and later discovered holes in it. She got together with other scientists, Paolo Bombelli and Christopher J. Howe to conduct research using 100 worms.
The worms were put in plastic shopping bags and within 40 minutes, holes began to appear. The bags had decreased by 92 mg by the time 12 hours had passed. Understanding how the worms were breaking down the chemical bonds in plastic was discovered after some of the worms were smeared on the bags. The holes showed up again.
Scientists are convinced that there is an enzyme inside of the worms that allows them to digest plastic. They already consume wax, which is a type of natural plastic.
After the enzyme is isolated, more can be understood about the digestion process. They may just hold the key to solving the problem of plastic trash.