Can Worms Eat Plastic? African Mealworm Might Help Save the Ocean

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Plastic pollution is a problem whether it's on land, whether

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it's in freshwater, whether it is in the ocean. It

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is a problem all over the world. Everybody's experiencing it

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and we continue to use single-use plastics like there

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isn't a problem. We continue to put out billions and

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billions of pounds of plastics each and every

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year into the ocean affecting and killing over

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hundreds of thousands of animals you know in the ocean including sharks

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including whales and dolphins and seabirds and so forth and

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it's just not helping we need to we need to figure out ways to

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stop it there are ways to recycle certain plastics like

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polystyrene in a chemical and physical way that

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we do in our you know in a waste management plant

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but that also produces a lot of toxins and it's very expensive so

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not everybody is willing to pay for it i know here in Canada

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and even in Ontario where I live, not a lot of, or

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it's just starting to come on where we're seeing more and more recycling happen

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of styrofoam, but certain regions may not have the capacity to

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take it. So we need to find ways, better ways

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of recycling these things. And we may have actually found it

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in an African mealworm. Yes, an insect, a larval mealworm

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that is able to break down polystyrene. So

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that means styrofoam products because of the microbes and

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bacteria in their gut. We're going to talk about how that

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happens and what we need to do about it to really bring

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it to scale and allow mass production of this, of

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these enzymes and these microbes on this episode of

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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lunen. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how

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you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by

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taking action. And this is the place, if this is the first time you've been

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here, this is the place where you find out everything you need to know about the ocean.

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Ocean news, you can find out how to speak up for the ocean. We have blogs, we

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have podcasts, I have Ocean Talk. We do a lot of different things on our YouTube channel.

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We have podcasts all about oceans. And if you want to

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get them all in one place, you can go to our website, speakupforblue.com. That's

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www.speakupforblue.com. And if you want

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that information to your inbox, you get the latest podcasts, the latest videos that

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we do. The latest news and the latest job ads,

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newsletter. Put in your email. It's all free. You get it to

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your inbox Monday to Friday. I can't wait to see you

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there. I'd love to hear what you think of the newsletter. Let me know just

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by responding and it goes right to me and I would love to hear your thoughts on

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that. But let's get into the episode. This is an interesting one.

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I've heard a lot about biological ways

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of breaking down plastics, how that could be the way to

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move. And there's two real big things that we need to do to

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ensure that these persist, like this type of innovation

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persists. One, we need to protect biodiversity on land and

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in the water, whether it's freshwater or ocean. We need to make sure that

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biodiversity is protected because you never know when you find a

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larval mealworm that can actually break down styrofoam. We

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won't know this if we allow all this destruction of our biodiversity in

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the the

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Convention on Parties for Biological Diversity last week.

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We talked a little bit about that. There needs to be more that needs to be done. There's

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an international Convention of Biodiversity Treaty

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that's in place and a lot of countries aren't really, you

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know, putting their money where their mouth is in terms of that protection.

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They're trying, not trying hard enough as usual. So more needs

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to be done to protect biodiversity. The other thing is we need to start

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putting these animals and putting the stuff that

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we learn from these animals to scale so that we can actually break

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down plastic faster. And in this case, this

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was an African mealworm that was done on a

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study with the person who's writing this article

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in The Conversation is Fathia She's

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a senior scientist at International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology

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at the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research. That

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was what it was funded by. But this is a really interesting study.

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So essentially, the study that they've looked

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at, they looked at the larvae of the Kenyan lesser mealworm

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that can chew through polystyrene, which is styrofoam, and host bacteria

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in their guts that help break down the material. So

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the lesser mealworm is the larvae from the

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Alphitobius darkling beetle. The larval

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period lasts about 8-10 weeks. The lesser mealworm are

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mostly found in poultry rearing houses which are warm and

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can offer a constant food supply, ideal conditions for them to

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grow. and reproduce. But

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the study also examined the insect's gut bacteria, and

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they want to identify bacterial communities that may support the plastic degradation process.

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So if they can support that, then they can find out what the bacteria is

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and what the enzymes they use. Maybe they don't necessarily need the lesser

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mealworm, because it'd be weird to just take a bunch of mealworms and

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just throw them into a landfill or throw them into a

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recycling plant. That'd be really creepy and weird, I think, to

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do that. So I think what the goal is

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is to extract and understand the bacterial communities that allow and

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foster this degradation in the gut

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of the mealworms and as well as the enzymes that they produce to be able to

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do that. So by studying these natural plastic eaters, They

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hope to create these new tools that can help get rid of plastic waste faster

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and more efficiently. So some of the key findings that they had was

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that when they fed the larvae different types

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of diets. So one was they just fed them polystyrene alone,

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so styrofoam type products. The other one was a mixture or

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the other one was just bran, which is like a nutrient-dense food that

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was just that. Then they did a combination of polystyrene and

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bran. They found that the efficiency and the breakdown was

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11.7% of the total polystyrene when

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they had the balanced diet. So they realized that you still need

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a nutrient-rich diet for these mealworms to maybe they're

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thinking to produce the actual bacteria and the enzymes in

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their gut so that they can break down the bacteria or

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the polystyrene material because when it was just polystyrene material

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diet, they just didn't do it as efficiently and they didn't last

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as long. So the scientists want to make sure that

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if you are using mealworms or you were trying to find out what fosters

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this type of bacteria that allows this bacteria to survive in

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the gut, is maybe have a diverse and nutrient-rich food.

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So that was kind of cool. Now, they did notice that in the gut, the

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gut bacteria reveal significant shifts in bacterial composition

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depending on the diet. So understanding these shifts in

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the composition is crucial because it reveals which microbes are actively

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involved in breaking down the plastics. So this would help them

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isolate the specific bacteria and the enzymes that

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can be harnessed. So what they're thinking is if you're just having a polystyrene diet,

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there could be specific bacteria in there. Or,

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if you're doing the combination, it could help produce

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that bacteria that would make sure that these polystyrene material

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breaks down the material. And it could mean that the bacteria, depending

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on what's available in terms of food, might change in order

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to serve the mealworm better. So, what

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they noticed in the larvae, they found that they contain higher levels

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of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes bacteria

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that can adapt to a number of various environments

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and break down a wide range of complex substances. The

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bacteria such as Clovera, Lactococcus,

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Citrobacter, and Klebsiella were

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also particularly abundant and are known to produce enzymes capable

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of digesting plastics, so synthetic plastics. So the bacteria won't

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be harmful to the insect or the environment when used at

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scale. So, that's always good. So, these are naturally occurring bacteria that

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just have the ability to break down a synthetic plastic. So,

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that's always great. Now, the abundance of bacteria indicates that they play a crucial role

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in breaking down the plastic. This may mean that mealworms may

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not actually have the ability to eat plastic. Instead, when they start

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eating the plastic, the bacteria in their guts might change to help break it

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down, just as I mentioned earlier. Thus, the microbes in the mealworms' stomachs can

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adjust to unusual diets such as plastic. So

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the findings do support their hypothesis that the gut of

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certain insects can enable plastic degradation. This is likely because

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the bacteria in the gut can produce enzymes that break down the plastic

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polymers, which is always great to do. Now, the next thing to do is, you

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know, they know that certain insect species like yellow mealworms and

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superworms have already demonstrated the ability to consume plastics. They're

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able to break down the materials like polystyrene with the help of

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bacteria in their gut. But the research is also unique

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because these mealworms are from Africa. Now, Africa has a

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lot of problems with dealing with plastic waste in that they purchase and

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import a lot of products that have plastic waste, but they also don't

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necessarily have the infrastructure to deal with the recycling or

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even storage of that waste. So a lot of times it gets into

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the environment, can harm not only habitats but

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the animals that live within that. So that is obviously a pretty

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difficult thing. So having, you know, a unique adaptation or

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a unique mealworm that's specific to Africa to be able to

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look at these and develop these methods within Africa can really help

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you know, African countries be able to—like Kenya and others to be able to help

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focus and isolate these areas. Now, the big thing is can they isolate the

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bacteria and the enzymes to work at scale? So you're obviously not

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going to just use mealworms. You're going to try and isolate and potentially make

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a product that would have the bacteria and those enzymes in it so

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that they can use it for—in processing plants and so forth. It's

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a pretty interesting study and it

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builds on other studies that have been done. I've seen this a lot and

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we just haven't seen, we haven't heard a lot about the development. That's why

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I want to kind of talk about it today. Again, trying to stay on

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our good news week after last week's presidential election. So

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I'm trying to... you know, see that there's hope that we can potentially and

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sometimes innovate our way out by using what

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is around us in the environment. Having and identifying animals

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and insects that are able to break down synthetic plastic is

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a huge, huge change in the way that we could manage plastic

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in the future. I'm not saying that we have to make more or that we're able

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to make more but if we can break this down biologically that

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is a huge help instead of having to create other toxins from

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the recycling process of using chemical or physical recycling

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like burning of this styrofoam which we know is not good for the environment. The

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more we can do biologically with a less impact on the

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environment, the better, and I think it's really great. But I'd love to hear your

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thoughts on this. I would like to hear your thoughts. You can go on our YouTube channel where this

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episode is. You can just leave a comment. You can leave a comment on Spotify if

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you're watching the video or you're listening to this on your AirPods while

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Commuting to work or while in your jog or walking your dog or whatever you're doing

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outside or inside, you know Whatever you're doing and you're listening to this audit

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from the audio perspective. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can hit me up on

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Instagram at how to protect the ocean that's at how

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to protect the ocean all one word I would just love to hear your

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thoughts. And don't forget, I did put out a vlog earlier this week. So

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you can go check that on our YouTube channel. You just go to YouTube and just look up

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Speak Up for Blue TV. You can get to that channel and I'll link to it

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in the show notes. So thank you very much for listening to this episode of

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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll