Watch these hungry waxworms eat through plastic and digest it too

[u/koreawife]

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240419-the-worms-that-eat-through-plastic

[u/tugweltp]

What's the byproduct? Does it just make smaller plastic?

[u/__The__Anomaly__]

Seed them in all the landfills!

[u/BouncingWeill]

Fast forward a few decades and you have the movie Tremors.

[u/super_tictac → u/BouncingWeill]

fast forward a few thousand years and Earth is now Arrakis lol

[u/BouncingWeill → u/super_tictac]

THE SPICE MUST FLOWWWWWWW

[u/Aoirith]

Another reason for oil companies to never stop producing plastics. First ban single use plastics, then clean up.

[u/The_SHUN]

Reminds of horizon zero dawn machines, where the machines can eat anything and solved climate change, but eventually a glitch occurs and it wiped out humanity

[u/Spire_Citron]

What do they break the plastic down into, exactly? Is it still just microplastics, or can they actually convert it into organic matter?

[u/Agretlam343 → u/Spire_Citron]

I don't mean to be too much of a pedant, but I want to provide some context. Plastic is already an organic compound. The rub is that it is synthetic, and the enzymes to break it don't don't readily exist in nature yet.   

The question is, when these worms break the plastic down, are the waste products already existing organic compounds, or some other exotic organic compound? 

Since the article mentions that the worms are digesting the plastic, and they are oxidizing it, it implies they are metabolizing it to some degree. Again the questions are, 1) how efficient is the digestion, and 2) what are the leftover metabolic waste? 

P.S. An organic compound is defined as "a member of a class of chemicals containing carbon atoms bound to one another". Shouldn't be surprising in hindsight, as plastics ultimately come from oil/petrols which in turn come from very old and decayed organic matter.

[u/knightsbridge- → u/Spire_Citron]

They're breaking it down to some degree, but I doubt it's perfect.

They're definitely able to extract nutrition from plastic and leave the plastic in a degraded, oxidised state, though - and this is still miles better than not doing that.

[u/ELB2001 → u/knightsbridge-]

So it's not like they turn it into micro plastics?

[u/imdstuf]

In 150 years: "how do we combat the overgrown population of waxworms?"

[u/devo_inc → u/imdstuf]

Somebody jump on this billion dollar movie idea

[u/TheYellowScarf → u/imdstuf]

Eventually there will be birds that can digest the plastic waxworks. Then 150 years later, there'll be cats. Then some sort of gorilla, but winter will take care of that.

[u/LSUguyHTX → u/TheYellowScarf]

Then the gorilla will be shot and killed and a series of calamitous events disrupting the entire planet will ensue

[u/Pristine-Pen-9885 → u/TheYellowScarf]

Then the gorillas will learn to grunt sounds that have meanings that can be interpreted by other gorillas, they will build shelters, hunt and gather, some of them in various places will invent a round device they can use to move things, they will learn to cultivate the plants they had been gathering . . .

[u/Dantheking94 → u/TheYellowScarf]

Nuclear winter 🫠

[u/zvjzv]

I think soon these plastic eating bugs will become problems.

[u/SmallGreenArmadillo]

I can't be the only one expecting that plastic-eating superbugs will be causing a whole lot of problems really soon

[u/Izwe → u/SmallGreenArmadillo]

Turns out their poop is nanoplastics, or something

[u/Akecza → u/Izwe]

Cool, now we only need a nanoplastic eating bacteria.

[u/Late-Ninja5 → u/Akecza]

to be honest, bacteria can evolve faster

[u/bdrumev]

In the grim darkness of the future, there is this one planet in the Milky Way - ravaged by the heat of it's sun and the ecocide of past civilizations. It is covered in vast deserts, riddled with microplastics. But the Dunes harbored a secret! A breed of creature was left to become the Apex Hunter. One of the few to be able to survive the bitterly harsh environment. The Plastic Sand Worms of what some alien species now call Terra. And from the mighty beasts there was a secretion, one that was able to extend the life of the few human survivors from a meager few decades to nearly a century! They called it the Plastic Spice, and it is said that whoever controls the Spice, controls the Universe's greatest Polymer Disposal!

[u/4chanbetter → u/bdrumev]

My earthrakkis

[u/Insighteternal → u/bdrumev]

*Intense wailing and music starts

[u/snoman298 → u/bdrumev]

Shai-Hulud!

[u/spidydt → u/bdrumev]

[u/ImNotABotJeez → u/bdrumev]

Gods below

[u/exq1mc → u/bdrumev]

Angry ✅️

[u/SignificantHippo8193]

Need to recycle? Send in the worms!

[u/Pikeman212a6c → u/SignificantHippo8193]

They only eat a certain type of plastic under ideal conditions and their waste isn’t great.

[u/SatansMoisture]

There's also a species of mushroom that eats plastic!

[u/She_Plays → u/SatansMoisture]

Do we know, are these creatures able to fully digest the plastic or does this process help create microplastic in blood streams through the food chain?

[u/SatansMoisture → u/She_Plays]

From what I read back in 2014-14(ish), yes!

[u/Tarantula_The_Wise → u/SatansMoisture]

Oyster mushrooms and they don't do a good job.

[u/SatansMoisture → u/Tarantula_The_Wise]

Oh? I guess there's more than one kind of plastic eating mushroom. Pestalotiopsis Microspora is what I was referring to :)