Scienctists Have Found Two New Agents For Breaking Down Plastic, and Have Made Three New Types of Biodegradable Plastics

http://ninjajournalist.com/science/plastic-and-save-the-environment/

Did you know plastic is digestible? No, not to humans of course, unless you were thinking of Britain's algae water bottles and Indonesia's yucca root plastic bags, those are very edible.

Science, or rather scientist Frederica Bertocchini a biomedical researcher, discovered a wax worm that can digest plastic.

AJ+ global news team interviewed Bertoccini in the following video and got to hear the tail of how she discovered waxworms divine power on a whim.



Waxworms act as a parasite in beehives, eating the honeycomb or rather raw wax material beehives, and laying waste. When Bertocchini found these worms in her home beehives she of course cleaned them out and set them aside in some plastic bags to dispose of later. Only to learn later that the waxworms were a bunch of escape artists and had eaten there way out of the plastic bags. Bertocchini and her colleagues began to study the worms and found that they weren't just chewing through the plastic bags, they were eating and digesting the plastic.

Bertocchini's waxworms were not the first discovery of an organism that could break down wax.  earlier Collective Evolution posted a video on Facebook showing  that scientists had discovered a fungi, or mushroom, that actually eats plastic. The mushroom itself researchers found is completely edible and non-toxic, or so they claim.


And while this discovery seems revolutionary, the video does not list its sources so it is hard to look more into how such a fungi could effect the environment.

A similar concern should even be voiced for the wax worm. Knowing the wax worm is like a parasite to beehives, what would the impact of increasing the number or waxworms to use to break down plastic have on beehives. Even if waxworms and or this fungi were used in private and protected facilities, what are the chances of them getting out? We need to see more stories one what scientists and even the government wants to do next and how.

But this is not to disregard these discoveries, if done right they could be monumentally helpful in cleaning up the mess and masses of plastic waste humans have created.

Discoveries have also been made on alternatives to plastic bags, packaging, and bottles. No, we are not talking about the cloth and paper sacks Californians now have to tote around to every shopping center and grocery store.



This year Avani, an alternative to plastic packaging company, created the Bio-Cassava bag. The Bio-Cassava bag is made from yucca root and is completely biodegradable. So biodegradable this ATTN video shows someone drinking it.

This also is not the first biodegradable plastic made, earlier researchers in Egypt had created plastic from discarded shrimp shells. Not the most appetizing picture, but a very efficient one, and also a great option of revenue for communities by the ocean. AJ+ also has the story for this one.


A more appetizing discovery and alternative to plastic comes from a small globe called Ooho!. Ooho is a casing, Daily Mail said, made from brown algae. Ooho! can encapsulate water and is both edible and biodegradable.


In their interview with Daily Mail the engineers said "'our packaging is cheaper than plastic and can encapsulate any beverage including water, soft drinks, spirits, and even cosmetics.'"

Sounds great. In fact, all of these new plastic discoveries sound great. Which is why it is disappointing that all we can see of them is what these videos have shown us. Some of these discoveries, for example the plastic decomposing fungi, have had quite some time of notoriety since their discovery. So it is a little disappointing that so far there are no further stories on what various governments and scientists plan to do with these discoveries from here onward.

It is nice knowing these options exist and there is more to discover, but hopefully we will soon be getting a little more action out of our discoveries.