Now a hero from zero: This was how a tiny waxworm was described when in 2017, researchers found that the caterpillar had the potential to help solve one of the most pressing problems of the world: plastic waste.
This caterpillar chomp through plastic material which includes polyethylene, a non-recyclable and common plastic presently clogging up the seas and landfills. To date, scientists have a further understanding of the how the waxworm is doing this. Then, it's coming down to its bug microbiome or bacteria.
The results, which were published, which the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B published early could guide initiatives to search for an effective biodegradation system for the tackling of plastic waste.
Associate professor and chair of biology at Brandon University I Canada, Christopher LeMoine, said, they discovered that waxworm caterpillars are "gifted with gut bacteria which are vital in the plastic biodegradation process."
This procedure, he added, seems dependent on an interaction between the caterpillars and their gut bacteria to speed up polyethylene degradation.
ALSO READ: Thinking of Protecting Mother Earth? Here are 4 Effective Tips
An Immediate Solution?
In the wild, the greater wax moth's larvae are deemed as a pest, as it acts as a parasite found in bee colonies that "eat away at the wax from honeycomb."
The waxworm caterpillar's plastic-eating skills were unintentionally discovered when Federica Bertocchini, an amateur beekeeper from Spain removed some of the pests from her beehives and placed them in one plastic bag.
Eventually, these caterpillars ate small holes in the plastic bag, munching through the plastic at such an alarming rate.
The said beekeeper, who also is incidentally a scientist at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria, put up a study to discover just how good the small grubs were at breaking down plastic. The team discovered that the waxworm broke down the polyethylene plastic bags faster than other procedures.
According to LeMoine, despite this, "waxworms were not an immediate solution to plastic pollution," with still a lot of work to be done to understand how the microbes and caterpillars, in their digestive tract, collaborate before being adapted and duplicated on a large scale.
Handling the Toxic Substance
One of the issues now is the handling of the toxic substance a caterpillar secretes when it is fed plastic. More so, while the researchers found that specific gut bacteria can survive on plastic for over a year, it took longer for it to be torn and broken down compared to when the larvae ate it, recommending that the caterpillar turned instrumental to the procedure.
"Fundamentally, both the host and the microbiome do the job synergistically with one another to achieve an effective plastic metabolism."
Instead of a bacteria's single species, it is most likely, several species that work for the facilitation of such a process. And, while some good developments in finding out some of the key elements became evident, a few more puzzles remain unsolved before they become effectively used for solving the plastic problem.
Therefore, perhaps, it's best to continue reducing the plastic waste while this issue is still getting figured out.