Biodegradação de poliestireno (PS) e polipropileno (PP) a partir de bactérias presentes no trato digestório de Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus e Zophobas morio Fabricius

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) is a material used on a large commercial scale due to its low cost. However, the incorrectly discarded volume of this material in the environment, which takes approximately 500 years to decompose, is exacerbated and generates a great environmental impact. A fact that leads researchers around the world to seek solutions to accelerate the degradation process and also petroleum-derived products. The objective of this work was to evaluate the evolution of PP and PS degradation in solid culture media via microbial test, isolating bacteria and subsequent verification of the mass of PP and PS plates. For this, two types of larvae were extracted from the digestive tract, namely Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) and Zoophobas mario Fabricius, 1776 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), later diluted in peptone water so that the inoculation in PCA solid culture medium for the proliferation of microorganisms and from this the isolation of three bacteria with polystyrene and polypropylene samples for a period of 58 days. In this study, an average decomposition rate was verified in samples of PS and PP for bacteria called red, white and milky of 0.192% and 0%, 0.779% and 0.022%, 0.611% and 0%, respectively, a fact that exposes the capacity of biodegradation of these individuals.