Recently in the journal “Microbial Genomics”, scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia described an amazing discovery they made about the larvae of darkling beetles, or zophobas morio. This larva, called a “superworm”, is the size of a paper clip and is capable of consuming and surviving on polystyrene, the substance that makes up styrofoam and other common waste products. This discovery could be significant in the global trash effort and directly help climate change as well.
First, they needed to see if the larvae had enzymes that actually broke down the styrofoam. So, Wei-min Wu, a senior researcher at Stanford, did a test. There were three groups of larvae. One would be fed a “healthy” diet for the species, the second would be fed styrofoam, and the third would be starved. In theory, if the enzymes did work, then the larvae in the second group would turn into beetles. If they had similar results to the third group, then they weren’t actually breaking down the styrofoam, because they weren’t getting anything out of it. In the end, the first group had 90% of the larvae become beetles. In the second, 66% became beetles. In the starved group, only 10% became beetles. This proved that the enzymes do actually break down the styrofoam.
So why was this important? Well, over 30% of the world’s trash are styrofoam products, and styrofoam isn’t easy to get rid of – it’s dense, and takes up a lot of space. On average, a styrofoam landfill takes around 500 years to fully decompose, covering a lot of space. Over 14 million tons of trash are dumped into the oceans every year, destroying habitats, and harming sea life. If we could knock out styrofoam landfills taking up so much space, less trash could be getting into the oceans. This would also affect climate change because decomposing trash releases methane which is a greenhouse gas.
Now that they have confirmed the enzymes break down styrofoam, they are now working on developing a product. After all, their goal hadn’t been to use the larvae themselves, rather to use/replicate their enzymes. Though the enzymes work, they probably can’t just take the enzymes out as the enzymes may only work in the conditions the larvae’s stomach provides. A possible idea they came up with was small kits, or compost bins that people could use on their own and feed styrofoam into. However, they will have to research whether these methods are worth using over just repurposing the styrofoam.
In conclusion, “superworms” or the larvae of darkling beetles have been proven to have enzymes that can effectively break down styrofoam. While this could be very helpful in the global trash and climate change efforts, whether they can actually make a product out of these enzymes remains to be seen.
First, they needed to see if the larvae had enzymes that actually broke down the styrofoam. So, Wei-min Wu, a senior researcher at Stanford, did a test. There were three groups of larvae. One would be fed a “healthy” diet for the species, the second would be fed styrofoam, and the third would be starved. In theory, if the enzymes did work, then the larvae in the second group would turn into beetles. If they had similar results to the third group, then they weren’t actually breaking down the styrofoam, because they weren’t getting anything out of it. In the end, the first group had 90% of the larvae become beetles. In the second, 66% became beetles. In the starved group, only 10% became beetles. This proved that the enzymes do actually break down the styrofoam.
So why was this important? Well, over 30% of the world’s trash are styrofoam products, and styrofoam isn’t easy to get rid of – it’s dense, and takes up a lot of space. On average, a styrofoam landfill takes around 500 years to fully decompose, covering a lot of space. Over 14 million tons of trash are dumped into the oceans every year, destroying habitats, and harming sea life. If we could knock out styrofoam landfills taking up so much space, less trash could be getting into the oceans. This would also affect climate change because decomposing trash releases methane which is a greenhouse gas.
Now that they have confirmed the enzymes break down styrofoam, they are now working on developing a product. After all, their goal hadn’t been to use the larvae themselves, rather to use/replicate their enzymes. Though the enzymes work, they probably can’t just take the enzymes out as the enzymes may only work in the conditions the larvae’s stomach provides. A possible idea they came up with was small kits, or compost bins that people could use on their own and feed styrofoam into. However, they will have to research whether these methods are worth using over just repurposing the styrofoam.
In conclusion, “superworms” or the larvae of darkling beetles have been proven to have enzymes that can effectively break down styrofoam. While this could be very helpful in the global trash and climate change efforts, whether they can actually make a product out of these enzymes remains to be seen.
