Deep rice eat plastic - solution to minimize landfill burial?

Rice worms (mealworm) may be the solution to the natural waste that we need, to face serious pollution caused by plastic waste.

Rice worm - a solution to disintegrate natural waste

Recently, a study of natural waste destruction has been published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, USA. Accordingly, for the first time, scientists have provided in-depth research evidence that small worms can digest styrofoam (a variant of polystyrene plastic) and some other polystyrene. . In the past, this type of waste is thought to be biodegradable and difficult to recycle.

'Sometimes, science surprised us. This research is a shock , 'said Craig Criddle, a professor at Stanford, a plastic research supervisor.

Rice worms are eating porous plastic.(Source: Yu Yang / Stanford).

Specifically, scientists have raised about 100 rice worms (also called worms ) with 'diets' of about 34-39 milligrams Styrofoam - equivalent to the dose of one small pill per day. With the help of intestinal bacteria, the worms convert half of this plastic into CO2 and then excrete the rest through feces - the kind of waste that can be biodegradable.

However, the most surprising thing for scientists is the medical reports of the samples: The porous rice worms are still alive and well as the worms with the usual diet. In fact, their excreted waste appears to be safe enough to use for crop application, although further research is needed to confirm this.

The real breakthrough in this study is the discovery that insect gut can digest supposedly non-biodegradable products - especially the waste of waste and cause serious problems. Environmental importance such as polystyrenes plastic.

If researchers can pinpoint the exact types of microorganisms that can do this incredible digestion, they can replicate the process of transformation and create more efficient and powerful digestive enzymes. .

Wei-Min Wu, a researcher from Stanford University, said: 'Our findings have opened up a new door to address global plastic waste problems '.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the United States alone, more than 33 million tons of plastic are dumped into landfills each year, and less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled. Plastic wastes can contaminate soil and water, threatening marine ecosystems. In addition, polystyrene resins such as styrofoam can take more than 1 million years to decompose.

The team said their next plan was to discover what would happen when other animals digest rice, and in larger animals, respectively. This will give scientists an overview of the effects of plastic waste on food chains.

They also hope to be able to find in the oceans a rice worm-like species, to help digest the plastic waste that is spreading on the sea. The gut-filled plastic pieces of seabirds, turtles and fish, cannot be digested and can cause mass deaths for marine animals, causing biological imbalance.

From an unsustainable material, hard to recycle, pollute the environment, plastic waste has become a 'food' useful for an hungry stomach. This research has definitely proven that a person's trash is a good food for others.