Biodegradable and Non-biodegradable Plastics in Super mealworms (Zophobas morio)

Due to growing plastic pollution, biodegradable plastics have become a popular alternative to plastics. Despite its name “biodegradable”, some biodegradable plastics are easily biodegradable only under certain system, like composting conditions or anaerobic digestion. Even that they are not biodegradable particularly in marine and soil environments. Recent work has found that mealworms eat and decompose several plastics. To determine whether biodegradable plastics may be suitable to biodegradation within mealworms, we evaluated the fate of PLA, TPS, PBS and PBAT, comparing with non-bidodegradable plastics. We find that the biodegradable plastics biodegrade like non-biodegarable plastics. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used to obtain quantitative biodegradabilities of the biodegradable plastics in mealworm guts.