{"id":30825,"date":"2026-11-12T23:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T21:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30825"},"modified":"2026-11-12T23:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T21:07:34","slug":"natural-plastic-from-bees-a-lifesaver-for-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30825","title":{"rendered":"Natural plastic from\u2026 bees\u2014a lifesaver for the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bees can produce\u2026 eco-friendly plastics. Believe it or not, they can. Specifically, a certain type of ground-nesting bee (<em>Colletes inaequalis<\/em>) produces a natural polyester\u2014very similar to polyethylene (a common industrial plastic widely used in packaging and many other products)\u2014to line the interior of its nest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was discovered by researchers from Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, as detailed in a study titled &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2607098123\">Rapid soil degradation of a cross-linked, semicrystalline polyethylene-like polyester produced by Colletes bees<\/a>&#8221; published in the scientific journal <em>PNAS<\/em> (<em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were particularly pleased to discover that this natural plastic biodegrades rapidly in the soil\u2014within a few months\u2014rather than taking\u2026 centuries, as is the case with conventional industrial plastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>An eco-friendly alternative to polyethylene<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, scientists observed that the levels of this natural polyester\u2014derived from bees\u2014dropped from 73% to 40% within just four months when placed in soil samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As noted by the study\u2019s lead author, Dr. Jonathan Coutts, an assistant professor in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech, this natural, bee-derived plastic could offer a far more eco-friendly alternative to polyethylene\u2014a material produced by the millions of tons annually that carries serious environmental consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We have a naturally produced polyester that mimics polyethylene,&#8221; Professor Coutts remarked, explaining the significance of this finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Nearly one-third of global annual plastic production consists of polyethylene\u2014we are talking about almost 160 million tons of polyethylene per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polyethylene can persist in the environment for centuries; even when it does break down, it continues to burden ecosystems by taking the form of microplastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it is not just polyethylene: many industrial plastics marketed as &#8216;biodegradable&#8217; actually break down very slowly, or only under specific industrial conditions.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Investigating the chemical structure of the bee\u2019s plastic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The research team is currently working to determine the chemical structure of the natural polyester produced by the bee\u2014a structure that enables it to break down so rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our goal is to answer this question and subsequently replicate nature\u2019s process on a large scale. The industry must be able to reproduce this process, rather than relying on the production of plastic by bees themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bees can produce\u2026 eco-friendly plastics. Believe it or not, they can. Specifically, a certain type of ground-nesting bee (Colletes inaequalis) produces a natural polyester\u2014very&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2810,1168],"tags":[8512,3024,4295,4591],"class_list":["post-30825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate_environment","category-science-technology","tag-bees","tag-environment","tag-plastic","tag-researchers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30827,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30825\/revisions\/30827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}