{"id":111057,"date":"2022-06-21T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=111057"},"modified":"2022-06-17T11:38:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T09:38:28","slug":"superworms-capable-of-munching-through-plastic-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/superworms-capable-of-munching-through-plastic-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Superworms capable of munching through plastic waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"UQ
UQ researcher Dr Chris Rinke<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered the common Zophobas morio \u2018superworm\u2019 can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme in their gut. Dr Chris Rinke<\/a> and his team from UQ\u2019s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences<\/a> fed superworms different diets over a three week period, with some given polystyrene foam, some bran and others put on a fasting diet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe found the superworms fed a diet of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had marginal weight gains,\u201d Dr Rinke<\/strong> said. \u201cThis suggests the worms can derive energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their gut microbes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The researchers used a technique called metagenomics to find several encoded enzymes with the ability to degrade polystyrene and styrene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-term goal is to engineer enzymes to degrade plastic waste in recycling plants through mechanical shredding, followed by enzymatic biodegradation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Zophobas morio<\/em> \u2018superworm\u2019 can eat through polystyrene. Image supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuperworms are like mini recycling plants, shredding the polystyrene with their mouths and then feeding it to the bacteria in their gut,\u201d Dr Rinke<\/strong> said. \u201cThe breakdown products from this reaction can then be used by other microbes to create high-value compounds such as bioplastics.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hoped this bio-upcycling will incentivise plastic waste recycling and reduce landfill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-author of the research, PhD candidate Jiarui Sun<\/a>, said they aim to grow the gut bacteria in the lab and further test its ability to degrade polystyrene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can then look into how we can upscale this process to a level required for an entire recycling plant,\u201d Ms Sun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Rinke said there are many opportunities for the biodegradation of plastic waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team is very excited to push the science to make it happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research has been published in Microbial Genomics.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered the common Zophobas morio \u2018superworm\u2019 can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme in their gut. Dr Chris Rinke and his team from UQ\u2019s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences fed superworms different diets over a three week period, with some given polystyrene foam, some bran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"A species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[10416,12239,5840,11966,10453],"supplier":[1299],"class_list":["post-111057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-circulareconomy","tag-compostability","tag-enzymes","tag-plastics","tag-recycling","supplier-university-of-queensland-australien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111057"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=111057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}