There are bacteria in nature that produce polyhydroxyalkanoate plastics, and many organisms, including humans, can decompose these plastics. The ability to decompose artificial plastics is also common:
- Tenebrio molitor can eat polystyrene, and its intestinal microorganisms include Microbacterium YT2, which can decompose polystyrene. Experiments show that the 3rd to 4th instar Tenebrio molitor larvae with polystyrene foam as the only carbon source can survive and develop into adults;
- Various animals such as Indian corn borer larvae and boat maggots can consume polyethylene, and their gut microbiota includes some Escherichia coli and some Bacillus that can decompose polyethylene.
- The saliva of the wax moth larvae contains two types of phenolic oxidase, which can be consumed in polyethylene. More Lepidoptera and Coleoptera insects can consume polyethylene and polystyrene.
- There are millions of insects and mollusks waiting for you to conduct experiments.
- In 2022, Thai researchers discovered that enzymes produced by some bacteria in seawater and human saliva can decompose polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
You can buy some yellow mealworms yourself and try to see if they can eat other plastics. Note that its teeth are not particularly good, and the hard plastic may need to be crushed in advance before it can be swallowed.
In 1925, Maurice Lemoigne, a microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute in France, isolated polyhydroxybutyrate from Bacillus subtilis. This type of plastic is non-toxic, insoluble in water, and allows oxygen to pass through. Surgical sutures, medical films, medical fabrics, etc. made of poly (4-hydroxybutyrate) can be absorbed by the human body. Recombinant fermentation or genetically modified plants with bacterial genes can mass produce polyhydroxybutyrate.
Without artificial plastics, organisms that can eat them could have evolved. Those creatures didn't even know they could eat artificial plastics until they were born in the world and met them.
