Worms like saving the planet. (Source: Getty Images)
Belgrade – Serbian scientists experiment with flour worms in an effort to teach them to break down polystyrene. Dr. Larisa Ilijin Reuters, a leader of the Bieohrad Biology Institute, said that researchers have discovered the ability of flour worms to digest various types of plastics, including polystyrene.
Polystyrene is mainly used in transport, insulation and in food containers. The Serbian project is supported by the local government, the UN Development Agency (UNDP) and other international contributors. Polystyrene is administered as a food to the Minor Molitor descendant in the larval stage. Naturally, larvae of this kind dream almost everything, but they need to be specially trained to process plastics. “We have larvae that have been specially bred to decompose plastics to make the decomposition process as effective as possible,” Ilijin said.
A breakthrough in recycling?
Ilijinova also said that in the intestines of these larvae there are bacteria that break down plastics into carbon dioxide and water, without traces of microplastics in the intestines and larvae. Polystyrene has been decomposed in nature for 500 years. “This would be one of the possible solutions to the problem of plastic waste in nature,” Ilijin said. There are similar research in the US and Africa.
Serbia, which hopes for admission to the EU, recycles only 15 percent of municipal waste, far less than 55 percent, a European Union’s goal. More than 84 percent of waste ends up in Serbia at one of 3,000 landfills, which are often unregulated and full of mixed waste. Thanks to this research, Serbia is also trying to achieve the standards set by the EU.
Further use of flour worms
The Institute has donated several containers with worms to the Belinda company Belinda Animals and she is now continuing to breed these creatures and hopes that other similar farms will follow. “When decomposing one kilogram of polystyrene worms, the worms form one to two grams of carbon dioxide. By burning the same amount of this plastic, it will be released more than 4000 times more CO2,” said the owner of Belinda Animals Boris Vasiljev.
If the number of similar larvae farms increases, Vasiljev sees further use of flour worms as feed for agricultural animals. According to Ilijin, this use of flour worms is still at the beginning, as Serbia lacks laws that would allow the use and sale of insect products as animal feed.
