Worm Saliva Breaks Down Tough Plastic

Polyethylene, a durable plastic, is widely considered one of the worst forms of plastic pollution, but chemicals found the saliva of the wax worm may hold the key to breaking it down. One hours worth of exposure to the saliva breaks down the plastic by the equivalent of years worth of weathering.

There are two enzymes responsible for this degradation, and it’s believed that they are the first effective agents found in nature.

Polyethylene comprises 30% of production of a wide range of materials such as pipes, flooring, and bottles. Its hardiness comes from its resistance to oxygen. In order to get oxygen into the plastic, it has to be treated with UV light, but, the wax worms saliva seems to have a similar, if not improved, effect.

Wax worms are well known for destroying honey bee hives, and researchers say that its this ability to destroy hives that may hold the key to their ability to degrade plastics.

The study, published in the journal, Nature, is led by a team of Spanish researchers, who now want to research further into the degradation of polyethylene by wax worm saliva, and hope that one day, people may be able to have a home kit that they can use to breakdown the polyethylene at home.

Source: BBC News, written by Matt Magrath , and, Sanluis-Verdes, A., et al., (2022). Wax worm saliva and the enzymes therein are the key to polyethylene degradation by Galleria mellonella. Nature Communications, 13(1). Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33127-w (Accessed: 5th October 2022)

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