Meet The Plastic-Eating Worms | Planet Fix | BBC Earth Science

I'm going to be endlessly entertained if these worms end up saving the world.

As a beekeeper I've noted the ability of wax-moth larvae to eat everything in their path...even polystyrene...but I thought this was purely mechanical chewing rather than actual digestion...well done that lady for making the connection!

Now all we need is to figure out the chemical composition of the enzymes capable of breaking down plastic and recreate them in a lab!

Kardashians been real quiet since this came out

Congrats to Jesse Pinkman in taking up a responsible career and doing good to the environment

I’m 60 and after watching this video, these are the kind of discoveries that makes me want to be 10-20 years old again. Because I want so much to be a part of these discoveries, transformations, and possibilities of tackling what initially appeared to be insurmountable problems such as what to do with all the plastic we use daily.

I’m humbled to see that a small creature may be able to help save the planet 🙏

Next most wanted invention: plastic eating worms resistant plastic 🗿

This reminds me a bit of something odd that occurred in my own field (pest control). The termite bait we use is actually made primarily out of plastic. The company that makes the bait had an issue with a phone line, and found that it was being eaten by termites. Turns out that there's a kind of plastic that termites like to eat. I'm not sure if it's the same sort of case, but to me it's a little funny. It also means the bait last as long as it needs to, and we don't need to worry about it degrading.

I would be interested in knowing the chemical composition of the worms droppings... This is incredible.

This is absolutely amazing. A majority of scientific discoveries were discovered by accident such as penicillin, indigo dye, and the list goes on and on. It’s a very exciting time to be alive.

Those worms' digestion is stronger than my will to live

I’ve never crossed my fingers so hard 🤞 not for the worms so much, but what we could potentially learn and develop.

if this actually works out this could be game changing. Nature is incredible.

Gotta introduce these little critters to all of the landfills

Everytime he talked about plastic ice cream – I Freaked out!

The worms are cool and all, but honestly I'm most impressed by the upscaling concept. Not just degrading plastics, but turning them into something USEFUL and marketable. That means there's incentive for a profit-seeking company to actually do it. Microbiology is really starting to take off in some cool directions and it's a damn shame we're not hearing more about it. Heck, I just read an article published recently that some researchers found a way to develop regular ol' brewer's yeast so that it produced THC from glucose. That's... pretty friggin cool. Not because of "lmao 420 blaze it" clout, but because they were able to use the available technology to casually engineer the yeast to do it. When sci-fi writers talk about things like food replicators and the like, this is how I actually see it manifesting. Using bacterium and fungi and other micro-organisms to break down or combine materials into things that can be used in manufacturing. Turning trash into food, fuel, medicine, minerals, you name it. I just hope they are able to use similar methods to process things like PFAs and heavy metals that are being found in higher concentrations in nature. They simply don't biodegrade at all, unless you're counting their atomic half-life.

It would be extremely helpful if you provided references to the journal articles that are spoken about.That way, we wouldn't have to go stumbling around looking for it, especially if someone doesn't know how to find a research paper. This is information that should be more easily accessible to the public, should they choose to read further about it.

There was a time 300 million years ago when trees first grew, that the lignin in wood could not be broken down. Then something happened and molds developed that could break down the lignin, plus the massive amounts of wood began to turn into coal.

When I was a kid I saw worms eating plastics many times, but I thought everyone would know that!