Bees could lead scientists to new plastic alternative

SYDNEY • An Australian bee that produces a “cellophane-like” material for its nests could help to end the world’s reliance on disposable plastics, scientists say.

The masked bee (hylaeus nubilosus), known for the distinctive yellow badge on its back, does not sting or live in hives but it has generated interest because of the nesting material it produces, which is non-toxic, waterproof, flame-resistant and can withstand heat.

A biotech company in New Zealand, Humble Bee, hopes to reverse-engineer the material and mass produce it as an alternative to plastic.

Veronica Harwood-Stevenson, the firm’s founder, began investigating the potential plastic alternative after noticing a throwaway line in a research paper about the “cellophane-like” qualities of the bees’ nesting material.

“Plastic particles and chemicals have permeated ecosystems and organisms around the world ... it’s so pervasive, it’s terrifying,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s about biomimicry, about copying what’s in the natural environment, and we’ve been doing it in design for centuries, from plane wing design inspired by birds of prey to train shapes reflecting bird beaks.”

Professor Richard Furneaux, of the Victoria University of Wellington, said the discovery was “almost too good to be true. Its robustness is beyond what you would have expected,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.