<story><title>Mealworms can eat and biodegrade styrofoam</title><url>http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jobu</author><text>This is the key part:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Microorganisms in the worms&amp;#x27; guts biodegrade the plastic in the process&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The question is whether we can harness these bacteria to break down plastics in landfills.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>munificent</author><text>I think the real scary question is &lt;i&gt;what happens if we do&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;One of the main reasons we use plastics is because they are great barriers against bacteria and other grossness. We wrap food in plastic, put dirty diapers and dog poop in plastic, put garbage in plastic, wrap raw meat in plastic, use plastic for medical equipment. All because it reliably keeps out (or in) the bad stuff.&lt;p&gt;What happens if there are plastic-eating bacteria all over the world? Imagine what it would feel like if everywhere we currently used plastic we were using uncoated paper instead? What kind of sanitization problems would we be experiencing?</text></comment>
<story><title>Mealworms can eat and biodegrade styrofoam</title><url>http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jobu</author><text>This is the key part:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Microorganisms in the worms&amp;#x27; guts biodegrade the plastic in the process&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The question is whether we can harness these bacteria to break down plastics in landfills.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>theophrastus</author><text>There is some really amazing biochemistry going on here.  The essential enzymes involved (and understanding their exact mechanism) would be of inestimable value for several reasons; a very large one you (jobu) suggest right here.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Polystyrene#Biodegradation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Polystyrene#Biodegradation&lt;/a&gt;
&amp;quot;... rates of styrene degradation ranged from 0.14 to 0.4 a−1. This is an order of magnitude faster than the most rapid rate of polystyrene degradation identified... Pseudomonas putida is capable of converting styrene oil into the biodegradable plastic PHA. This may be of use in the effective recycling of Polystyrene foam, otherwise thought to be non-biodegradable.&amp;quot;</text></comment>