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. 2021 Oct 13;13(20):3508.
doi: 10.3390/polym13203508.

Biodegradation of Different Types of Plastics by Tenebrio molitor Insect

Piotr Bulak  1 , Kinga Proc  1 , Anna Pytlak  1 , Andrzej Puszka  2 , Barbara Gawdzik  2 , Andrzej Bieganowski  1
Affiliations

Biodegradation of Different Types of Plastics by Tenebrio molitor Insect

Piotr Bulak et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Looking for new, sustainable ways to utilize plastics is still a very pertinent topic considering the amount of plastics produced in the world. One of the newest and intriguing possibility is the use of insects in biodegradation of plastics, which can be named entomoremediation. The aim of this work was to demonstrate the ability of the insect Tenebrio molitor to biodegrade different, real plastic waste. The types of plastic waste used were: remains of thermal building insulation polystyrene foam (PS), two types of polyurethane (kitchen sponge as PU1 and commercial thermal insulation foam as PU2), and polyethylene foam (PE), which has been used as packaging material. After 58 days, the efficiency of mass reduction for all of the investigated plastics was 46.5%, 41.0%, 53.2%, and 69.7% for PS, PU1, PU2, and PE, respectively (with a dose of 0.0052 g of each plastic per 1 mealworm larvae). Both larvae and imago were active plastic eaters. However, in order to shorten the duration of the experiment and increase the specific consumption rate, the two forms of the insect should not be combined together in one container.

Keywords: bioremediation; entomoremediation; mealworm; waste management.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plastics used for the experiment. (A) Materials for which time-lapse video was created. From left: polystyrene (PS), polyurethane kitchen sponge (PU1), polyurethane thermal insulation foam (PU2). (B) Polyethylene packaging foam (PE).
Figure 2
Figure 2
FT-IR spectra for plastics used in the experiments. PS—polystyrene (Styrofoam), PU1—polyurethane foam (kitchen sponge), PU2—polyurethane foam (building thermal insulator), PE—polyethylene foam (packaging foam).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cumulative loss of PS, PU1, PU2, and PE plastic waste (g) during feeding of T. molitor (mean ± SD; n = 3).
Figure 4
Figure 4
SEM microphotography of the plastic samples taken for the experiment (A,C,E,G) and plastics isolated from the insect frass after the experiment (B,D,F,H). (A,B): PS (30,000×); (C,D): PU1 (20,000×); (E,F): PU2 (20,000×), (G,H): PE (20,000×). Magnifications were selected to best illustrate the differences in the surface of the samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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