In 2017, they discovered that a common insect was capable of chewing sizable holes in a plastic shopping bag within 40 minutes.
The discovery was led by Federica Bertocchini, a developmental biologist at the University of Cantabria in Spain. Federica Bertocchini discovered the unusual characterists by accident. The biologist was cleaning out her backyard beehives one day, when she removed some wax worms (Galleria mellonella) living in the hive and placed them in a plastic bag. After cleaning the hive, Bertocchini went to get the worms and discovered that the plastic bag containing the worms were riddled with tiny holes.
Bertocchini immediately understood what was going on. The little creatures are called wax worms because they live on the wax in bee hives.
While there are organisms capable of eating plastic materials, they do take a considerable amount of time to break them down. However, the waxworms can eat their way through the plastic bags in a far shorter period of time. The worms occupy bee colonies and eat wax, which is also a polymer like plastic; consisting of a long string of carbon atoms held together. Bertocchini discovered that both the plastic bag and wax had a similar carbon backbone.
In order to put her finding to the test, Bertocchini teamed up with fellow scientists Paolo Bombelli and Christopher to determine if they are really capable of eating plastic.
Bertocchini and her team placed 1oo waxworms inside a polyethylene plastic bag and recorded the activity. The study found that each of them worms were capable of creating an average of 2.2 holes per hour. However, overnight, the worms managed to degrade 92 milligrams of the plastic bag. After calculating their breakdown rate, the team discovered that the same 100 worms would take nearly a month to completely break down an average, 5.5 gram plastic bag.
The team also discovered that an enzyme within the worms or the bacteria living in and on their bodies was also capable of dissolving plastic.
After discovering that their bodies also contained enzymes that can break down plastic, scientists tested their theory. Bertocchini’s team spread some wax worm guts on a piece of plastic and discovered that they too were capable of eating through plastic. These worms were breaking down plastic into ethylene glycol, which can be used to make polyester or antifreeze. This is a crucial scientific discovery and the next step to progress is to isolate that chemical.
Although the waxworms themselves cannot make much of a difference in reducing plastic pollution in our planet, the enzymes produced can surely help scientists discover new methods to breakdown plastic.