Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 20, Pages 12080-12086Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02661
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [51373006, 20477002]
- State Basic Research Program of China [2014CB931800]
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Bioenergy [CXB201005240001A]
- NSFC [51373006]
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Polystyrene (PS) is generally considered to be durable and resistant to biodegradation. Mealworms (the larvae of Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus) from different sources chew and eat Styrofoam, a common PS product. The Styrofoam was efficiently degraded in the larval gut within a retention time of less than 24 h. Fed with Styrofoam as the sole diet, the larvae lived as well as those fed with a normal diet (bran) over a period of 1 month. The analysis of fecula egested from Styrofoam-feeding larvae, using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), solid-state C-13 cross-polarization/magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (CP/MAS NMR) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric Fourier transform infrared (TG FTIR) spectroscopy, substantiated that cleavage/depolymerization of long-chain PS molecules and the formation of depolymerized metabolites occurred in the larval gut. Within a 16 day test period, 47.7% of the ingested Styrofoam carbon was converted into CO2 and the residue (ca. 49.2%) was egested as fecula with a limited fraction incorporated into biomass (ca. 0.5%). Tests with alpha C-13- or beta C-13-labeled PS confirmed that the C-13-labeled PS was mineralized to (CO2)-C-13 and incorporated into lipids. The discovery of the rapid biodegradation of PS in the larval gut reveals a new fate for plastic waste in the environment.
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