Living Smart

II ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY 044 045 Bugs can help in plastic fight Dr. Melody LEUNG Lecturer II, Division of Life Science A t a time when plastic pollution is reaching catastrophic levels, scientists have made some discoveries which indicate that digestive enzymes produced by some plastic-eating bugs may provide a solution to complete recycling of plastic. For instance, in 2015 a scientist from the University of Cantabria in Spain discovered that the larvae of the greater wax moth that consumes bee wax has certain intestinal digestive bacteria which produces an enzyme that is capable of degrading plastic bags. Another research team at Beihang University in China used mealworms for experiments. They found that the larvae survived in good health for a month by consuming nothing but plastic foam. The team was able to isolate the bacteria Exiguobacterium sp strain YT2 from the mealworms’ intestinal tract. Similar to the greater wax moth larvae’ s intestinal digestive bacteria, it was this bacterium that digested plastic foam. While this would seem like the perfect solution to the global issue of plastic pollution, the scientists found that 100 larvae would need a whole month to completely eliminate a plastic shopping bag we get at a supermarket. In Hong Kong, an average of 1.7 plastic bags are discarded