Caterpillars Larvae, The Next Step Towards Breaking Down Plastic!
3 days ago I wrote a post about the Plastic Problem In Indonesia.
@jaki01 had a great suggestion to solve the problem, bacteria!
It's ANTI-PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Plastic usually takes decades to biodegrade, however the gut bacteria in plodia interpunctella's larvae may be able to speed up the process significantly.
Scientists discovered on November 13th that a certain caterpillar can nibble through polyethylene plastic. The caterpillar's digestive bacteria is the crucial part of this process.
Researchers originally reported this at the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology.
Caterpillars Won't Save The World
But if we could separate the magic bacteria in these caterpillars, then douse plastic with it, we may see some outstanding results!
The Magic Of It All
A caterpillar which only eats bran and wheat produces a bacteria called Turicibacter.
However, the caterpillars which ate plastic has a more diverse digestive tract. They had high levels of a few different bacterias: epidimonas, Pseudomonas, Rhizobiales and Methylobacteriaceae.
Some of these bacteria have been shown to colonize and help degrade plastics in the ocean, so it makes sense that the microorganisms also appear to be helping the caterpillars break down plastics.
says study coauthor Anisha Navlekar of Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
Who is @Chron?
@chron is a 16 year old robot-headed Steemer, currently based in Bali, Indonesia.
I am currently working in association with @samstonehill on the following projects:
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I am currently working in association with @samstonehill on the following projects:
@steemmasters which provides FREE TUTORIALS, personal training & resteeming services. Website HERE.
@charitysteemit which aims to help charity campaign gain traction on Steemit and help the affected people, check out our most recent post HERE.
A member of the Steemit Bloggers Community, heading the CHARITY Q&A. Join us on Discord, we don't bite.
Avid graphic designer, if you want a Gif like above made by me or a banner like below contact @chron on Steemit.chat (we can discuss rates there).
Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank, @pharesim & @thecryptodrive
Without them the our beautiful decentralized platform would sink!
Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE.
Hi, @chron, did you read this article, too, already where I wrote about exactly that plastic degrading caterpillar? :)
To be more exact: Plodia interpunctella I mentioned already in my article about plastic degrading bacteria. My article linked in the comment above is about Galleria mellonella.
Amazing, continue to educate us! These are truly amazing creatures 😀
Yup, I did @jaki01, I loved your article!
In fact I loved it so much and thought it fit with my previous post so well that I wrote about it individually 😀!
Thank you for insighting us into your discovery! We Steemians love it 😁
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Thanks for the info, yea i've been recently hearing a lot about insects and other organisms capable of digesting plastic. Good news :)
Glad you found interesting 😁
We can possibly see a brighter future because of this, awesome 👍
This is a great news, and a great step towards a clean life. I live in a lesser maintained part of city and pollution due to plastic waste is a big problem here. Nobody will mind buying some sort of dustbin filled with microbes that take care of the plastic bags they throw.
Well and truly 👍
I would love to see this system arrive in the future, hopefully we can all live a clean, peaceful and abundant life in the future!
Thank you for commenting 🤗
Fascinating information! Hope this finding is taken up for further study by the larger scientific community.
Yes, that would be amazing.
Without initiatives like this the world will become one big dump!
Thanks for commenting 😀
:)
Men pollutes, and creation has to do all the clean up, as usual.
Do you realise that tree roots could actually break stones, and also concretes?
It's really cool that nature has stepped into the process of breaking down plastic, let us not take for granted that just because there are organism and super cool larva and caterpillar is there to help , we can continue to use plastic and pollute our planet as we please.
upvoted
Exactly @littlenewthings, we cannot neglect mother earth!
We must care for her, she is part of us as much as we are part of her.
Thank you for your perspective, I greatly appreciate it 😀
Good post, I am a photographer, it passes for my blog and sees my content, I hope that it should be of your taste, you have my vote :D greetings
Thank you very much!
Hope Steemit treats you well, above and beyond 👍
A caterpillar that can help biodegrade plastic! Thats so cool. This world is so amazing. It already had the solution to our plastic problem, it was just waiting for us to find it and utilize it!!
Yes, very true! We need to continue to focus our resources on solutions like this 👍
That's a great info @chron. I've read somewhere that these bacteria can degrade a plastic bottle in a few weeks. The challenge for the scientists would be to create a culture for these bacteria to thrive in so that they can be used commercially.
That would be great! I would love to see this happen.
Thanks for commenting 😀
That is quite interesting! It gives me hope.. @steemitbloggers
Thank you @melinda! #steemitbloggers