Can caterpillars save earth from plastic?
The humble caterpillar can be the answer to dealing with the growing mountains of plastic waste around the world, says new research that shows it breaks down chemical bonds in plastic used for bags and packaging at unusually high speeds.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Spain say the discovery could lead to a new approach to polyethylene waste that chokes oceans and landfills. Plastic is usually highly resistant to breaking down, but nature may provide the answer.
The researchers found a caterpillar commercially bred for fishing bait has the ability to biodegrade polyethylene, one of the toughest and most used plastics, frequently found clogging landfill sites in the form of shopping bags. The discovery is based on the wax worm, the larvae of the common insect Galleria mellonella, or greater wax moth, considered a scourge of beehives across Europe. In the wild, the worms live as parasites in bee colonies. Wax moths lay their eggs inside hives, where the worms hatch and grow on beeswax.
The chance discovery occurred when a member of the scientific team, Federica Bertocchini, an amateur bee-keeper, was removing the parasitic pests from honeycombs in her hives. The worms were temporarily kept in a typical plastic shopping bag that became riddled with holes.
Bertocchini, from the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria, Spain, collaborated with colleagues Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe at the University of Cambridge’s department of biochemistry to conduct a timed experiment.