A Waxworm Atop a Plastic Bag. Source: CNet.
On April 18, 2019, Victor Vescovo attempted the deepest dive in American history into the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. After his hour-and-a-half-long descent to the bottom of the trench, the first thing Victor saw was a plastic bag. A piece of plastic had managed to reach one of the deepest points in the ocean. Of the 300 million tons of plastic produced each year, 50 percent are only used once, and 8 million tons are emptied into the ocean. Plastic pollution has reached every corner and crevice of the world.
Plastic is widely manufactured for its very low cost and outstanding durability. It has been incorporated into our daily lives now and it would be almost impossible to imagine life without it. However, its durability comes with a massive cost: most plastic is not biodegradable. In other words, plastic is not capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. Thus, plastics can take up to 450 years to decompose, and in that time, can cause immense damage to our environment.
Despite the fact that plastic cannot be digested, organisms around the world, especially in our oceans, continue to consume our plastic waste. Sea turtles, for example, often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and as a result, thousands of turtles are killed each year. Plastic can be traced through entire food chains. Over a third of the fish in the ocean have traces of plastic in them. Even humans are starting to be affected by the plastic crisis. Recently, a terrifying discovery found microplastics in the placentas of unborn babies. However, we may have found a possible solution to this problem: waxworms.
Despite their small appearance, waxworms may provide huge benefits to our environment. Specific microorganisms within waxworms’ digestive tracts allow them to consume plastics, including polyethylene, the most commonly used non-biodegradable plastic in the world. Due to their voracious nature during their larval stage, waxworms can consume polyethylene at unprecedented rates and turn it into glycol, a biodegradable substance. If researchers manage to harness the microorganisms within the waxworms artificially, they could potentially lower the amount of plastic in our ocean without disturbing the natural processes of waxworms. Although this would not be a complete solution to our plastic crisis, the discovery of waxworms’ unique ability could be a very promising step in the right direction.
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