Chance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/www.biobasedpress.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Plastic_Pollution_in_Santa_Luzia_Cape_Verde.jpg\")
<\/a>Plastic Pollution in Santa Luzia, Cape Verde. Photo: CaptainDarwin, Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nResearchers accidentally discovered that wax worms can digest polyethylene. One of the researchers, Federica Bertocchini of the Biological Research Centre in Madrid, is a beekeeper. Her beehives were infected with wax worms. \u2018I started to clean the hives and collected the worms in a plastic bag,\u2019 she told The Guardian<\/em>. \u2018After a while I saw holes in the bag. We discovered that this wasn\u2019t just the result of chewing. It was chemical degradation.\u2019 The worms\u2019 saliva contains enzymes that can dissolve plastic bags and packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese enzymes are the first known substances able to break down this plastic within a few hours. The key to a form of decay that could be cheap enough. And that would be good news. Thirty percent of all plastics in the world consist of polyethylene. The main applications of the material are in everyday commodities like bags and packaging. So far, there were just two ways to treat these plastic products when discarded. Incineration or downcycling \u2013 and in the latter application, polyethylene still stays intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Useful chemicals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nA lot needs to be researched before this form of decay might be ready for commercial application. \u2018We will have to do a lot of research, and think about how we can develop this new strategy to cope with plastic pollution,\u2019 says Clemente Arias, researcher at the Spanish research centre, to Nature Communications<\/em>. \u2018Commercial application\u2019 could mean: in large factories, where we might make useful chemicals from the plastic. But the researchers also have the idea that this process might be a home-based product. In the form of a recycle kit, that could recycle plastics to useful products.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlastic pollution is all over the world. It has been found on Mount Everest\u2019s summit<\/a> and in the deepest trench in the oceans<\/a>, the Mariana trench. On the other hand: we also discover processes that cause plastic to disappear in nature \u2013 some of it may be digested after all. Change.inc reported on German researchers who found an enzyme capable of downgrading plastics in a manure heap at a cemetery<\/a>. And on Australian researchers who found a worm that can downgrade polystyrene<\/a> (two links in Dutch).<\/p>\n\n\n\nSunlight<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/www.biobasedpress.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Plastic_Trash_in_Raja_Ampat_Birds_Head_Seascape.jpg\")
<\/a>Plastic Trash in Raja Ampat, Bird\u2019s Head Seascape. Photo: Jones\/Shimlock \/ Secret Sea Visions, Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAt NIOZ, the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, researchers even proved that plastics can be broken down by sunlight. The miniscule particles into which plastics degrade in the sea aren\u2019t perfectly inert. Solar radiation will break down 2% of all plastics floating in the sea annually. \u2018That may seem too little,\u2019 says PhD student Annalisa Delre in a message<\/a>, \u2018but as this will happen each year, this phenomenon does explain why we lost a major part of the plastic soup in the oceans since the fifties.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis explains why we find just part of the plastic that we dumped into the oceans. NIOZ says that this breakdown by sunlight explains about one fifth of this phenomenon. In the lab, researchers exposed plastic in sea water to UV light, mimicking sunlight. This caused plastic particles to shrink. Part of them dissolved in the form of nano particles, and even in the form of molecules not unlike those found in crude oil. Itself difficult to decompose, but not quite inert. Yet, just a small part of the plastic soup ended up as the entirely harmless breakdown product CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLess plastic pollution is the best solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe researchers don\u2019t judge that we should solve the problem of plastic pollution though this mechanism. As if we should just discard plastic in the seas. It is in our advantage that the problem of plastic pollution is less permanent than we once thought. And yet, the most effective solution is to cap the volume of plastics production<\/a>. The researchers who made a plea for this recently, hold that all other measures will not be able to keep pace with the growth of plastics production and plastic pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Researchers accidentally discovered that wax worms can digest polyethylene. One of the researchers, Federica Bertocchini of the Biological Research Centre in Madrid, is a beekeeper. Her beehives were infected with wax worms. \u2018I started to clean the hives and collected the worms in a plastic bag,\u2019 she told The Guardian<\/em>. \u2018After a while I saw holes in the bag. We discovered that this wasn\u2019t just the result of chewing. It was chemical degradation.\u2019 The worms\u2019 saliva contains enzymes that can dissolve plastic bags and packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These enzymes are the first known substances able to break down this plastic within a few hours. The key to a form of decay that could be cheap enough. And that would be good news. Thirty percent of all plastics in the world consist of polyethylene. The main applications of the material are in everyday commodities like bags and packaging. So far, there were just two ways to treat these plastic products when discarded. Incineration or downcycling \u2013 and in the latter application, polyethylene still stays intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot needs to be researched before this form of decay might be ready for commercial application. \u2018We will have to do a lot of research, and think about how we can develop this new strategy to cope with plastic pollution,\u2019 says Clemente Arias, researcher at the Spanish research centre, to Nature Communications<\/em>. \u2018Commercial application\u2019 could mean: in large factories, where we might make useful chemicals from the plastic. But the researchers also have the idea that this process might be a home-based product. In the form of a recycle kit, that could recycle plastics to useful products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plastic pollution is all over the world. It has been found on Mount Everest\u2019s summit<\/a> and in the deepest trench in the oceans<\/a>, the Mariana trench. On the other hand: we also discover processes that cause plastic to disappear in nature \u2013 some of it may be digested after all. Change.inc reported on German researchers who found an enzyme capable of downgrading plastics in a manure heap at a cemetery<\/a>. And on Australian researchers who found a worm that can downgrade polystyrene<\/a> (two links in Dutch).<\/p>\n\n\n\n At NIOZ, the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, researchers even proved that plastics can be broken down by sunlight. The miniscule particles into which plastics degrade in the sea aren\u2019t perfectly inert. Solar radiation will break down 2% of all plastics floating in the sea annually. \u2018That may seem too little,\u2019 says PhD student Annalisa Delre in a message<\/a>, \u2018but as this will happen each year, this phenomenon does explain why we lost a major part of the plastic soup in the oceans since the fifties.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n This explains why we find just part of the plastic that we dumped into the oceans. NIOZ says that this breakdown by sunlight explains about one fifth of this phenomenon. In the lab, researchers exposed plastic in sea water to UV light, mimicking sunlight. This caused plastic particles to shrink. Part of them dissolved in the form of nano particles, and even in the form of molecules not unlike those found in crude oil. Itself difficult to decompose, but not quite inert. Yet, just a small part of the plastic soup ended up as the entirely harmless breakdown product CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers don\u2019t judge that we should solve the problem of plastic pollution though this mechanism. As if we should just discard plastic in the seas. It is in our advantage that the problem of plastic pollution is less permanent than we once thought. And yet, the most effective solution is to cap the volume of plastics production<\/a>. The researchers who made a plea for this recently, hold that all other measures will not be able to keep pace with the growth of plastics production and plastic pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\nUseful chemicals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sunlight<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Less plastic pollution is the best solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n