Scientists around the world have been trying to figure out ways to tackle the plastic problem. Yet, it has to be admitted that there hasn’t been much success in this regard. The path that most scientific research follows is logical. By this, I mean that one thing leads to another in science and they are tied by strings of reason.
Yet, sometimes, pretty unexpected things come up. It wouldn’t even be wrong to say that such unexpected occurrences change the world and change science as a whole. Remember Newton and his apple? Something similar has happened yet again.
A paper published recently in the Current Biology journal has revealed the existence of a certain moth that can eat plastic. Yes! You read it right. They literally chew and gulp plastic down as you’d do with a sandwich or something.
Federica Bertocchini – a Spanish biologist at the University of Cantabria and an amateur bee-keeper – noticed some caterpillars lapping up honey from her hives. Deciding to observe them, she put them in a plastic bag and took them home with her.
However, the caterpillars meant to surprise her and they executed it very well. A while later, she found out that the caterpillars had made many holes in the packet and had escaped onto her floor.
She identified these caterpillars as larvae of a common hive pest, known as the Greater Wax Moth. Their escape sparked the idea that they could indeed help with the garbage disposal.
In the past, other organisms had been tested for this capability to eat plastic. Yet, even the best among them took a long time. This one was fast. Really fast!
Consequently, Bertocchini undertook an experiment along with biologists Christopher Howe and Paolo Bombelli from Cambridge University. It was found that many plastics have chemical bonds similar to bee-wax. Only some organisms, like this one, have the enzymes needed to break these methylene bridges. This is one of the reasons why plastic is non-biodegradable.