Plastic is suffocating the planet. According to the World Federation for Nature (WWF), plastic makes up around 85 per cent of the rubbish in the sea. In total, plastic makes up about 10 percent of the amount of waste in the world. But not all plastic is as easy to recycle. Now the researchers are learning a new way to extract plastic, from a caterpillar. A plastic we cannot recycle Wax moths got their name because they lay their eggs in beeswax. The larvae ate their way through the adult. But the larvae can’t just eat beeswax, they also eat plastic. Even the plastics that are difficult to recycle, such as plastic bags. The researchers Gustav Vaaje-Kolsta and Vincent Eijsink have been working with polyethylene research for twenty years. Photo: Tonje Lindrup Robertsen – Nature has already developed a number of tools that we can use industrially to break down different types of plastic polymers so that we can recycle plastic. So says Gustav Vaaje-Kolsta, professor at the faculty of chemistry, biotechnology and food science at Norway’s University of Environmental and Biosciences (NMBU). But plastic is not the larvae’s favorite food. – It’s the diet from hell, says Vaaje-Kolsta’s colleague, Vincent Eijsink. Even if the larvae manage to break it down, they will die within a few generations. Therefore, leaving the recycling of plastic to the larvae is not the solution. The researchers are working to develop and improve the enzymes that the larvae use to break down polyethylene. The larvae can break down the plastic into small building blocks for polyethylene, which can be used again as food. Photo: Shutterstock The project has been named Enzyclic. The researchers will copy the genetic material of the larvae and the bacteria they have in their digestive system, and make the enzyme themselves on the paw. There they can optimize it and produce the enzyme on a large scale. – We want to work more towards the difficult plastic. For example, the plastic in packaging, but you can also find it in hard objects, says Eijsink. The hope is that in time they can break down the plastic into sugar, which can be used, among other things, for biofuel. – Nature shows us that it is possible, so we are not completely off the hook. As researchers, we can do things a little better than nature. That is what we are going to do with the enzymes that the larvae have, says Eijsink. Doubling of plastic consumption is expected in the coming years There is currently a lot of plastic in Norway that is not recycled. This is because some packaging materials are put together from several different types of plastic. Then the plastic is dumped instead of recycled, says Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen, senior researcher at Nofima. – We use a lot of plastic and consumption has increased significantly. Some materials, such as the plastic bottle, which only consists of one type of plastic, can easily be recovered. Other types of plastic are more difficult to win. – If you want to reduce the use of new plastic, you have to do more than we do, says Pettersen. Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen, senior researcher at Nofima Photo: Nofima She therefore believes that the new types of technology that the researchers from NMBU, among others, are working with will be an important contribution to the future. Only 9 percent of the plastic is recycled Head of Bellona’s bioprogramme, Joakim Hauge, says that only 9 percent of all plastic that has been produced has been recycled. The rest is waste. – Plastic is one of the biggest environmental problems today. The UN says that in 2022 the amount of plastic waste produced will be equal to the weight of the earth’s population. Head of Bellona’s bioprogram, Joakim Hauge says enzyme research at NMBU is an international leader in the biotechnological recycling of plastics. Photo: Roberto Di Trani / Bellona – If the trend we see now continues, the world’s oceans in 2050 may contain more plastic than fish. In addition to being a littering problem, this is a major climate problem, says Hauge. Therefore, he believes that research at NMBU can become a nest egg that helps us tackle both an environmental problem, provide new jobs and solve the climate crisis. – Biotechnology can help give us some completely new and important tools in the fight against climate change. Something we see today as waste can instead become an important resource. Want to make plastic more valuable The Enzyclic project now collaborates with, among other things, the plastics research institute Norner. By copying the larvae’s enzyme, Norner is working to produce plastics that are easier to break down. – It will perhaps create less plastic pollution when people become aware that they should be collected and that it is valuable, says Vaaje-Kolsta.
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Wax moth as a plastic could be the solution to the plastic problem, researchers at NMBU believe – news Nordland
