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Title: Serbian Scientists Experiment With Mealworms To Degrade Polystyrene

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/20/2...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Serbian scientists have
been experimenting with mealworms as a way to break down polystyrene. Larisa
Ilijin, a principal research fellow at Belgrade's Institute for Biology, said
the scientists had discovered that mealworms can digest various plastics,
including polystyrene, which is used in packaging, insulation and food
containers. In the project endorsed by the government and the United Nations'
agency for international development, UNDP, and other international donors,
they have been including the polystyrene in the regular food of the larval
form of the yellow mealworm beetle, or Tenebrio molitor. They habitually eat
more or less anything, but need the training to eat the plastic products. "We
have larvae that have been adapted over a long time to biodegrade plastic, to
be as efficient as possible in the process," Ilijin told Reuters. She said
the bacteria living in their guts break down the plastic into carbon dioxide
and water, and showed no evidence of leaving microplastic residue in their
innards or faeces. The work builds on similar research projects in the U.S.
and Africa. [...] The institute has given Belgrade-based Belinda Animals
several containers of the mealworms. It is now breeding them and hoping to
attract a network of similar farms. "When breaking down 1 kg of Styrofoam,
larvae emit one to two grams of carbon dioxide ... If we incinerate it ...
(Styrofoam) emits over 4,000 times more," owner Boris Vasiljev said. He also
envisages the larvae being used as animal feed, should it reach a large
commercial scale. The use of mealworms is still in its infancy, Ilijin said,
as Serbia still needs to adopt regulations that would allow the use and sale
of insect products for animal fodder. "Styrofoam takes over 500 years to
decompose in nature ... this would be one of the good ways for solving the
problem of plastic waste in nature," Ilijin said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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