According to this article in TheGuardian.com, dead flies could
be turned into biodegradable plastic, researchers have said. The finding, presented at the autumn meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), could be useful as it is difficult to find sources for biodegradable polymers that do not have other competing uses.
“For 20 years, my group has been developing methods to transform natural products – such as glucose obtained from sugar cane or trees – into degradable, digestible polymers that don’t persist in the environment,” said the principal investigator, Karen Wooley, from Texas A&M University. “But those natural products are harvested from resources that are also used for food, fuel, construction and transportation.”
A colleague suggested she could use waste products left over from farming black soldier flies. The larvae of the flies contain proteins and other nutritious compounds so are being raised for animal feed, and they break down waste so are being bred for that, too. However, adult flies are less useful and are discarded after their short life span. Wooley’s team has been trying to use these carcasses to make useful materials from a waste product.
The full article is here, but if you can't get past the paywall,
you already get the gist of the idea:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/14/dead-flies-biodegradable-plastic-scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/14/dead-flies-biodegradable-plastic-scientists
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If they want us to use bugs I say better for plastic than for food...
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