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In April of last year, National Geographic reported that a scientific discovery revealed that waxworms could eat plastic bags. It suggested that at some future date, this might solve the problem of plastic pollution and the tons of plastic trash that float in the Pacific Ocean. Waxworms are the caterpillar larvae of wax moths.
A Spanish biologist, Federica Bertocchini, discovered this as she cleaned out her beehives. She removed the waxworms living in her beehives and dropped them into a plastic bag. When she checked the bag later, she saw holes obviously eaten by the worms. It was a lightbulb moment. An enzyme in the worms could dissolve plastic.
Fast forward to this April. Scientists researching this phenomenon have “tweaked the enzyme” and made it more efficient at breaking down plastic bottles after worms were found eating plastic bottles at a Japanese waste dump. The mutant enzyme works faster and the scientists are now hard at work trying to improve the process. The problem of plastic pollution is huge. The Guardian newspaper reports that one million plastic bottles are sold every minute but only 14% of them get recycled.
Enzyme technology is used in other ways (think washing powder) but the hope that it can be developed to address pollution is very exciting. There’s a long way to go and may still be a problem for the scientists of the future but the potential is enormous.
