Plastic pollution and vegetable

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ARMAND
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Plastic pollution and vegetable




by ARMAND » 27/04/17, 11:06

Hello, it appears that the larvae of the moth Galleria mellonella, called wax moth, manage to ingest and degrade the polyethylene in large proportions ... the study is only at the beginning, once synthesized ( by chemicals (lol) the system can be industrialized. These larvae are also baits of sin, so we can raise them at home by feeding them gratos (for the furious ones of ecology) : Mrgreen:
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by Did67 » 27/04/17, 11:30

Large proportion ??? I do not know. Do you have a source ???

What is known is that a Spanish researcher who kept wax infested in a plastic bag found holes in her ...

Note that we do not know if they "shred" or "digest" it. What I have read is not clear.

At home too, the mice cut electrical cables or plaster, to pass ... I do not deduce that they will get rid of it!

Beware of the buzz. It is urgent to wait to know a little more, in my opinion.

[NB: researchers also need to be interested in them; and they increasingly needed to be read to get grants ...]
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Julienmos
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by Julienmos » 27/04/17, 12:32

I read that too in my diary this morning ... I copy-stick the article of the RL:

SCIENCE - IT IS ABLE TO DIGERATE POLYETHYLENE
A larva devours the plastic xxxxx

The discovery of a parasite capable of devouring polyethylene offers the prospect of rapidly biodegrading this pollutant that accumulates in the environment, especially in the oceans.

Like some major scientific discoveries, this one happened by chance.

Federica Bertocchini, a researcher at the Spanish Center for National Research, is also an amateur beekeeper. One day, opening her hives, she discovers larvae of the false moth wax, a butterfly widespread in Europe.
Usually, these larvae are raised commercially in large numbers for use as bait for fishing.

Federica Bertocchini cleans the cells and places the wax infected by this parasite in plastic bags. To her surprise, she realizes that the bags are quickly riddled with holes. She decides to push her research ...

Extremely fast

The conclusion is clear: the larva is able to devour polyethylene, one of the most resistant plastics, used in many packaging and very difficult to degrade naturally.

This finding is proving to be excellent news for the environment, since it offers the prospect of rapidly biodegrading this pollutant, which accumulates in landfills and oceans. Every year, some 80 million tons of polyethylene are produced worldwide.

Other observations were made with a supermarket bag in the United Kingdom, submitted to a hundred of these larvae: they could damage the plastic in less than one hour.

Holes began to appear after only forty minutes and after twelve hours the plastic mass of the bag was reduced by 92 milligrams, which is considerable. Last year, a bacterium tested could also degrade some plastics, but at the rate of 0,13 milligram in 24 hours only.

An enzyme to isolate

Scientists believe that waxworm larvae do not just ingest plastic, but transform or break it with a substance produced by its salivary glands.

One of the next steps will be to try to identify this molecular process and determine how to isolate the responsible enzyme. It will then remain to be manufactured on an industrial scale thanks to biotechnology.

Despite the policies to see it disappear, the plastic bag is resisting: every year, a thousand billion are used in the world-more than 230 per individual, producing more than 100 000 tons of waste, often abandoned in nature, where they put 400 years to decompose entirely. However, 75% of the waste at sea is plastic, mostly the famous bags, which end up in the belly of fish and then in our plates!
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ARMAND
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by ARMAND » 27/04/17, 12:38

source: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/ful ... 60-9822(17) 30231-2
The experience has tended to take into account the simple chewing ... : Mrgreen:
In what proportion? compared to nothing: the asymptote to infinity ... compared to bacteria, a factor 100 ...
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by Did67 » 27/04/17, 19:07

I can not open the link ...

I had only read an article very close to what Julienmos published.

I find that science has also entered the field of excessive media and buzz ... So I used to be wary a little.

I summarize: subject to a hundred of these larvae ... after twelve o'clock, the plastic mass of the bag was reduced by 92 milligrams ...

I put together: a hundred of larvae, in twelve hours, would have ingested, without we know yet very well what it becomes, 92 mg PE ...

And above all, we do not know what they have eaten in all ... If for that, it took them 50 g of wax (0,5 g each) ????

So before shouting hurray, and help to maintain or develop the buzz, I'm waiting to know a little more. At the risk of being called skeptical!
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ARMAND
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by ARMAND » 27/04/17, 20:48

Actually the link does not seem to work, just make the effort to type cell.com and paste Federica Bertocchini in the search box ... What's it all about? I have my idea on it : Mrgreen:
The interest is not the figures cited but the discovery and confirmation of the existence of an enzyme likely to degrade this plastic relatively quickly, it will be enough for the chemical engineering to synthesize in volume ...
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by chatelot16 » 27/04/17, 21:42

I've been seeing all kinds of creatures that eat plastic ... for a long time ... but do not digest it ... so it does not destroy it ... and most of all it does not feed these critters. ill

the easiest way to value polyethylene and polypropylene is to burn it where heat is needed! it burns as clean as fuel oil!

of course not to be confused with pvc which is too polluting if it is burned without precaution
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Re: Plastic pollution and vegetable garden




by Did67 » 28/04/17, 08:36

ARMAND wrote:Actually the link does not seem to work, just make the effort to type cell.com and paste Federica Bertocchini in the search box ... What's it all about? I have my idea on it : Mrgreen:
The interest is not the figures cited but the discovery and confirmation of the existence of an enzyme likely to degrade this plastic relatively quickly, it will be enough for the chemical engineering to synthesize in volume ...


OKAY. I found.

And indeed, the article, more precise, confirms the possibility of degradation of PE by this larva, at the indicated speed. With formation of ethylene glycol and weaker mass chains ...

So yes, there are possibilities for "chemical engineering" ...

On the other hand, it is not clear if the larvae feed on this!
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