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Can Worms Eat Plastic? African Mealworm Might Help Save the Ocean · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Plastic pollution is a problem whether it's on land, whether
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  it's in freshwater, whether it is in the ocean. It
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  is a problem all over the world. Everybody's experiencing it
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  and we continue to use single-use plastics like there
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  isn't a problem. We continue to put out billions and
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  billions of pounds of plastics each and every
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  year into the ocean affecting and killing over
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  hundreds of thousands of animals you know in the ocean including sharks
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  including whales and dolphins and seabirds and so forth and
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  it's just not helping we need to we need to figure out ways to
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  stop it there are ways to recycle certain plastics like
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  polystyrene in a chemical and physical way that
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  we do in our you know in a waste management plant
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  but that also produces a lot of toxins and it's very expensive so
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  not everybody is willing to pay for it i know here in Canada
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  and even in Ontario where I live, not a lot of, or
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  it's just starting to come on where we're seeing more and more recycling happen
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  of styrofoam, but certain regions may not have the capacity to
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  take it. So we need to find ways, better ways
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  of recycling these things. And we may have actually found it
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  in an African mealworm. Yes, an insect, a larval mealworm
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  that is able to break down polystyrene. So
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  that means styrofoam products because of the microbes and
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  bacteria in their gut. We're going to talk about how that
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  happens and what we need to do about it to really bring
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  it to scale and allow mass production of this, of
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  these enzymes and these microbes on this episode of
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  the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey
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  everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
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  your host, Andrew Lunen. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how
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  you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by
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  taking action. And this is the place, if this is the first time you've been
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  here, this is the place where you find out everything you need to know about the ocean.
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  Ocean news, you can find out how to speak up for the ocean. We have blogs, we
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  have podcasts, I have Ocean Talk. We do a lot of different things on our YouTube channel.
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  get them all in one place, you can go to our website, speakupforblue.com. That's
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  by responding and it goes right to me and I would love to hear your thoughts on
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  that. But let's get into the episode. This is an interesting one.
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  I've heard a lot about biological ways
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  of breaking down plastics, how that could be the way to
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  move. And there's two real big things that we need to do to
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  ensure that these persist, like this type of innovation
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  persists. One, we need to protect biodiversity on land and
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  in the water, whether it's freshwater or ocean. We need to make sure that
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  biodiversity is protected because you never know when you find a
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  larval mealworm that can actually break down styrofoam. We
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  won't know this if we allow all this destruction of our biodiversity in
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  the the
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  Convention on Parties for Biological Diversity last week.
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  We talked a little bit about that. There needs to be more that needs to be done. There's
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  an international Convention of Biodiversity Treaty
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  that's in place and a lot of countries aren't really, you
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  know, putting their money where their mouth is in terms of that protection.
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  They're trying, not trying hard enough as usual. So more needs
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  to be done to protect biodiversity. The other thing is we need to start
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  putting these animals and putting the stuff that
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  we learn from these animals to scale so that we can actually break
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  down plastic faster. And in this case, this
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  was an African mealworm that was done on a
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  study with the person who's writing this article
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  in The Conversation is Fathia She's
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  a senior scientist at International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology
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  at the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research. That
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  was what it was funded by. But this is a really interesting study.
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  So essentially, the study that they've looked
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  at, they looked at the larvae of the Kenyan lesser mealworm
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  that can chew through polystyrene, which is styrofoam, and host bacteria
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  in their guts that help break down the material. So
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  the lesser mealworm is the larvae from the
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  Alphitobius darkling beetle. The larval
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  period lasts about 8-10 weeks. The lesser mealworm are
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  mostly found in poultry rearing houses which are warm and
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  can offer a constant food supply, ideal conditions for them to
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  grow. and reproduce. But
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  the study also examined the insect's gut bacteria, and
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  they want to identify bacterial communities that may support the plastic degradation process.
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  So if they can support that, then they can find out what the bacteria is
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  and what the enzymes they use. Maybe they don't necessarily need the lesser
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  mealworm, because it'd be weird to just take a bunch of mealworms and
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  just throw them into a landfill or throw them into a
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  recycling plant. That'd be really creepy and weird, I think, to
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  do that. So I think what the goal is
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  is to extract and understand the bacterial communities that allow and
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  foster this degradation in the gut
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  of the mealworms and as well as the enzymes that they produce to be able to
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  do that. So by studying these natural plastic eaters, They
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  hope to create these new tools that can help get rid of plastic waste faster
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  and more efficiently. So some of the key findings that they had was
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  that when they fed the larvae different types
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  of diets. So one was they just fed them polystyrene alone,
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  so styrofoam type products. The other one was a mixture or
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  the other one was just bran, which is like a nutrient-dense food that
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  was just that. Then they did a combination of polystyrene and
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  bran. They found that the efficiency and the breakdown was
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  11.7% of the total polystyrene when
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  they had the balanced diet. So they realized that you still need
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  a nutrient-rich diet for these mealworms to maybe they're
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  thinking to produce the actual bacteria and the enzymes in
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  their gut so that they can break down the bacteria or
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  the polystyrene material because when it was just polystyrene material
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  diet, they just didn't do it as efficiently and they didn't last
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  as long. So the scientists want to make sure that
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  if you are using mealworms or you were trying to find out what fosters
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  this type of bacteria that allows this bacteria to survive in
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  the gut, is maybe have a diverse and nutrient-rich food.
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  So that was kind of cool. Now, they did notice that in the gut, the
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  gut bacteria reveal significant shifts in bacterial composition
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  depending on the diet. So understanding these shifts in
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  the composition is crucial because it reveals which microbes are actively
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  involved in breaking down the plastics. So this would help them
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  isolate the specific bacteria and the enzymes that
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  can be harnessed. So what they're thinking is if you're just having a polystyrene diet,
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  there could be specific bacteria in there. Or,
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  if you're doing the combination, it could help produce
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  that bacteria that would make sure that these polystyrene material
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  breaks down the material. And it could mean that the bacteria, depending
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  on what's available in terms of food, might change in order
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  to serve the mealworm better. So, what
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  they noticed in the larvae, they found that they contain higher levels
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  of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes bacteria
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  that can adapt to a number of various environments
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  and break down a wide range of complex substances. The
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  bacteria such as Clovera, Lactococcus,
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  Citrobacter, and Klebsiella were
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  also particularly abundant and are known to produce enzymes capable
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  of digesting plastics, so synthetic plastics. So the bacteria won't
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  be harmful to the insect or the environment when used at
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  scale. So, that's always good. So, these are naturally occurring bacteria that
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  just have the ability to break down a synthetic plastic. So,
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  that's always great. Now, the abundance of bacteria indicates that they play a crucial role
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  in breaking down the plastic. This may mean that mealworms may
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  not actually have the ability to eat plastic. Instead, when they start
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  eating the plastic, the bacteria in their guts might change to help break it
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  down, just as I mentioned earlier. Thus, the microbes in the mealworms' stomachs can
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  adjust to unusual diets such as plastic. So
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  the findings do support their hypothesis that the gut of
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  certain insects can enable plastic degradation. This is likely because
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  the bacteria in the gut can produce enzymes that break down the plastic
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  polymers, which is always great to do. Now, the next thing to do is, you
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  know, they know that certain insect species like yellow mealworms and
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  superworms have already demonstrated the ability to consume plastics. They're
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  able to break down the materials like polystyrene with the help of
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  bacteria in their gut. But the research is also unique
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  because these mealworms are from Africa. Now, Africa has a
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  lot of problems with dealing with plastic waste in that they purchase and
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  import a lot of products that have plastic waste, but they also don't
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  necessarily have the infrastructure to deal with the recycling or
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  even storage of that waste. So a lot of times it gets into
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  the environment, can harm not only habitats but
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  the animals that live within that. So that is obviously a pretty
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  difficult thing. So having, you know, a unique adaptation or
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  a unique mealworm that's specific to Africa to be able to
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  look at these and develop these methods within Africa can really help
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  you know, African countries be able to—like Kenya and others to be able to help
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  focus and isolate these areas. Now, the big thing is can they isolate the
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  bacteria and the enzymes to work at scale? So you're obviously not
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  going to just use mealworms. You're going to try and isolate and potentially make
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  a product that would have the bacteria and those enzymes in it so
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  that they can use it for—in processing plants and so forth. It's
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  a pretty interesting study and it
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  builds on other studies that have been done. I've seen this a lot and
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  we just haven't seen, we haven't heard a lot about the development. That's why
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  I want to kind of talk about it today. Again, trying to stay on
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  our good news week after last week's presidential election. So
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  I'm trying to... you know, see that there's hope that we can potentially and
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  sometimes innovate our way out by using what
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  is around us in the environment. Having and identifying animals
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  and insects that are able to break down synthetic plastic is
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  a huge, huge change in the way that we could manage plastic
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  in the future. I'm not saying that we have to make more or that we're able
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  to make more but if we can break this down biologically that
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  is a huge help instead of having to create other toxins from
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  the recycling process of using chemical or physical recycling
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  like burning of this styrofoam which we know is not good for the environment. The
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  more we can do biologically with a less impact on the
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  environment, the better, and I think it's really great. But I'd love to hear your
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  thoughts on this. I would like to hear your thoughts. You can go on our YouTube channel where this
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  episode is. You can just leave a comment. You can leave a comment on Spotify if
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  you're watching the video or you're listening to this on your AirPods while
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  Commuting to work or while in your jog or walking your dog or whatever you're doing
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  outside or inside, you know Whatever you're doing and you're listening to this audit
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  from the audio perspective. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can hit me up on
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  Instagram at how to protect the ocean that's at how
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  to protect the ocean all one word I would just love to hear your
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  thoughts. And don't forget, I did put out a vlog earlier this week. So
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  you can go check that on our YouTube channel. You just go to YouTube and just look up
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  Speak Up for Blue TV. You can get to that channel and I'll link to it
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  in the show notes. So thank you very much for listening to this episode of
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  the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll