‘Superworm’ could help fix trash crisis

challenges in the years ahead.

It will take time to study the gut enzymes of things like mealworms and superworms, and when they do, it is not guaranteed they can digest plastics at large levels at a very quick and efficient rate.

Rinke was excited by his research results but noted it would take time to develop into an industrial solution, somewhere between five and 10 years.

To conduct the study, his research team in Australia fed the superworms three separate diets. One group was given a ‘‘healthy’’ solution of bran, the second, polystyrene, and the third was put on a starvation diet.

Ninety per cent of the larvae that ate bran became beetles, compared with roughly 66% from the group given polystyrene and 10% from those forced to starve. This indicated to researchers that superworms have enzymes in their gut that can effectively digest Styrofoam.

Next, the scientists will study those enzymes to see how well they can digest polystyrene on a large scale – modifying them if necessary to become more effective. ‘‘We want to not have gigantic superworm farms,’’ Rinke says. ‘‘Rather, we want to focus on the enzyme.’’

If the research proves successful, Rinke says waste managers could collect and grind Styrofoam materials and put them into a liquid solution made with the superworm enzyme.

The solution would ideally dispose of the Styrofoam or digest it in a way that allows new plastic products to be created, thereby reducing the need for new plastic materials, he says.

‘‘If you can go all the way to the end, the idea is to use the system and come up with a biological solution to recycle plastic.’’

Despite the findings from Rinke and others, there are reasons that none has successfully translated into industry applications over the past decade, researchers say.

Andrew Ellington, a professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, says it has been difficult to find a plastic-digesting organism or enzyme that can operate in industrial conditions, which often process trash in very hot environments or through the use of organic solvents.

‘‘When you find something on a beach or you find something in a worm gut, that’s great, but all the enzymes in that thing work pretty much under the conditions where you found it,’’ he says. ‘‘And those may not be industrial conditions.’’

He adds that even if researchers decide not to extract enzymes and simply flood landfills with Styrofoam-eating worms, problems will occur.

Landfills combine all types of plastics together, and separating Styrofoam from other trash to let worms eat the pile would be cumbersome and costly.

He suggested an alternative solution. ‘‘I believe that we will be able to offer up, in the not-sodistant future, worm-based composting kits so that individuals can do this themselves.’’

Jeremy O’brien, director of applied research at the Solid Waste Association of North America, says there are other business challenges in putting this type of solution into use.

As envisioned, the solution would require waste managers to collect Styrofoam separately from other trash, he says, which makes it cost-prohibitive.

O’brien also says it remains unclear what kind of organic waste the enzyme process would generate, and he worries it could harm the micro-organisms landfills already use to process rubbish and reduce odours.

He adds that a more desirable and cost-effective solution would be to take Styrofoam in landfills and condense them enough so that they can be turned into new plastics. ‘‘That’s a lot simpler solution.’’ – Washington Post