AI Article Synopsis
- Recent studies highlight that earthworms can help break down microplastics by physically altering their size and boosting microbial activity, but they can't chemically convert plastics into simpler elements.
- While earthworms impact the physical properties of plastics in the soil, they avoid areas with high plastic concentrations and tend to reject plastic material.
- The review points out that challenges in using earthworms for plastic degradation are linked to the toxicity and complexity of plastics, as well as environmental factors like soil moisture, temperature, and microbial presence.
Article Abstract
Recently, the contribution of earthworms to plastic degradation and their capability to swallow smaller plastic fragments, known as microplastics, has been emphasized. The worm physically changes the size of microplastics and enhances microbial activities to increase the possibility of degradation. However, no research has shown that earthworms can chemically degrade microplastics to an element form, CO or HO. In this review, previous research has been thoroughly explored to analyse the role that earthworms could play in plastic degradation in the soil. Earthworms can significantly affect the physical characteristics of plastics. However, earthworms' abilities to chemically degrade or change the chemical structure of plastics and microplastics have not been observed. Additionally, earthworms exhibit selective feeding behaviour, avoiding areas containing a high plastics concentration and rejecting plastics. Consequently, earthworms' abilities to adapt to the microplastics in soil in the environment can cause a problem. Based on this review, the challenges faced in earthworm application for plastic degradation are mostly expected to be associated with the toxicity and complexity of the plastic material and environmental factors, such as the moisture content of the soil and its temperature, microbial population, and feeding method.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9656314 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14214770 | DOI Listing |
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