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A Caterpillar May Lead To a 'Plastic Pollution' Solution (bbc.com)
New submitter FatdogHaiku quotes a report from BBC: Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered that the larvae of the moth, which eats wax in bee hives, can also degrade plastic. Experiments show the insect can break down the chemical bonds of plastic in a similar way to digesting beeswax. The plastic is used to make shopping bags and food packaging, among other things, but it can take hundreds of years to decompose completely. However, caterpillars of the moth (Galleria mellonella) can make holes in a plastic bag in under an hour. They think microbes in the caterpillar -- as well as the insect itself -- might play a role in breaking down plastic. If the chemical process can be identified, it could lead to a solution to managing plastic waste in the environment.
What happens when this species is "accidentally" released near a plastic-lined holding pond for toxic waste?
You mean other than Godzilla-sized caterpillars roaming downtown streets eating people because of their delicious nylon candy coating?
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Create an opportunity for energy, and something quickly evolves to take advantage of it
Counter-example: Trees evolved lignin about 360 million years ago, yet for 60 million years no other organism evolved the ability to digest the enormous piles of energy dense material. Most of the world's coal deposits formed during this period. Fungus finally evolved the ability to break down lignin, but the process was not efficient and has been described as "untieing a knot with a flamethrower". The same process is still in use by fungi today.
What could go wrong? - Louis Wu
Well... The plastic-eating microbes could get loose and destroy everything made of plastic - like electrical insulation, etc.... like in the book, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters. But, that's just science fiction.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
All the previous posters joke about mutant moths and such. In reality no one wants to release these critters. They want to find out what the chemical process is and see if it can be replicated industrially and effeciently. If it works without massive energy input then it is a viable alternative to putting plastic in landfills.
Silence is a state of mime.
For 30 odd million years after trees evolved, nothing could eat dead wood. Dead trees piled up and their accumulated weight created the coal deposits that Trump knows and loves so well today.
Then after a few handy mutations, a microbe learned to eat wood. These microbes then learned to cohabitate in the gut of insects we now call termites in order to get around better. Together they eat houses.
Could happen with plastic.
And guitars.
Table-ized A.I.
When all you have is a flamethrower, everything looks like a knot.
Unfortunately we're currently unburying and burning 400 years worth of old trees per year. Can't compensate for that by growing trees (one year's worth of trees per year). We're off by two orders of magnitude.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Actually, there are not many chemicals that break down plastic. That's why it is such a handy material to make containers from, because it can contain about anything. And that's also why plastic garbage is such a problem. Plastic is mostly destroyed by sunlight and by heat. While the second one goes fast, it is not feasible for the cleanup of whole landscapes (except you want them scorched), the first one is a very slow process.
On one side they do not know how it works.
They think microbes in the caterpillar - as well as the insect itself - might play a role in breaking down plastic.
If the chemical process can be identified, it could lead to a solution to managing plastic waste in the environment.
On the other side they patent it
Dr Bombelli and colleague Federica Bertocchini of the Spanish National Research Council have patented the discovery.
pro tip:the second someone injects "Trump" or "Hillary" or "Obama", etc. into their non-political post, their post loses at least half of its credibility.