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Method for Zero-Waste Circular Economy using worms for plastic agriculture: Augmenting polystyrene consumption and plant growth

View ORCID ProfileSamuel Ken-En Gan, Ser-Xian Phua, Joshua Yi Yeo, Zealyn Shi-Lin Heng, Zhenxiang Xing
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.123521
Samuel Ken-En Gan
1APD SKEG Pte Ltd
2Antibody & Product Development Lab, EDDC, BII A*STAR, 60 Biopolis Street, #B2 Genome, Singapore 139672, Singapore
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  • ORCID record for Samuel Ken-En Gan
  • For correspondence: samgan@apdskeg.com
Ser-Xian Phua
2Antibody & Product Development Lab, EDDC, BII A*STAR, 60 Biopolis Street, #B2 Genome, Singapore 139672, Singapore
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Joshua Yi Yeo
2Antibody & Product Development Lab, EDDC, BII A*STAR, 60 Biopolis Street, #B2 Genome, Singapore 139672, Singapore
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Zealyn Shi-Lin Heng
2Antibody & Product Development Lab, EDDC, BII A*STAR, 60 Biopolis Street, #B2 Genome, Singapore 139672, Singapore
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Zhenxiang Xing
3Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR, 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Singapore 138634, Singapore
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Abstract

Polystyrene (PS) is one of the major plastics contributing to environmental pollution with its durability and resistance to natural biodegradation. Recent research showed that meal-worms (Tenebrio molitor) and superworms (Zophobas morio) are naturally able to consume PS as a carbon food source and degrade them without observable toxic effects. In this study, we explored the effects of possible food waste contamination and use of worm frass as potential plant fertilizers. We found that small amounts of sucrose and bran increased PS consumption and that the worm frass alone could support dragon fruit cacti (Hylocereus undatus) growth, with superworm frass in particular, supporting better growth and rooting than mealworm frass and control media over a fortnight. As known fish and poultry feed, these finding present worms as a natural solution to simultaneously tackle both the global plastic problem and urban farming issue in a zero-waste sustainable bioremediation cycle.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • samgan{at}apdskeg.com; phuasx{at}sgut.bii.a-star.edu.sg (S.-X.P.); joshua_yeo{at}eddc.a-star.edu.sg(J.Y.Y.); hengsl{at}sgut.bii.a-star.edu.sg (Z.S.-L.H.); xing_zhenxiang{at}imre.a-star.edu.sg (Z.X.)

  • Data and further analysis of the worms and plant growth have been added.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 06, 2021.
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Method for Zero-Waste Circular Economy using worms for plastic agriculture: Augmenting polystyrene consumption and plant growth
Samuel Ken-En Gan, Ser-Xian Phua, Joshua Yi Yeo, Zealyn Shi-Lin Heng, Zhenxiang Xing
bioRxiv 2020.05.29.123521; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.123521
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Method for Zero-Waste Circular Economy using worms for plastic agriculture: Augmenting polystyrene consumption and plant growth
Samuel Ken-En Gan, Ser-Xian Phua, Joshua Yi Yeo, Zealyn Shi-Lin Heng, Zhenxiang Xing
bioRxiv 2020.05.29.123521; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.123521

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