Estudo prospectivo: avaliação da capacidade de larvas de tenébrio na biodegradação de resíduos de poliestireno

Abstract

The production of incorrectly discarded plastic waste has been increasing exponentially around the world, resulting in tragic consequences for the environment. The search for new forms and technologies or the biodegradation of this type of material (plastic) is being a great challenge in the scientific field. Research indicates that by the year 2050, planet Earth may have an increase of 50% in the total production of plastic materials, which makes it necessary to search for an alternative to mitigate the environmental impact from this waste. The objective of this work was to make a prospective study from a survey of the number of patent documents in the European Patent Bank (Espacenet®), related to the biodegradation of polystyrene (PS), having as biodegrading agent, insects, in particular, the Tenebrio Molitor. As a research method to refine the results, the International Patent Code (IPC) and the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) code were used, together with the keywords “biodegradation”, “polystyrene” and “Tenebrio Molitor”. A total of 155 patent documents were analyzed as a database. The use of edible insects as an agent for the biodegradation of substances reached its peak in 2019, the country with the highest number of patent filings was China (84). However, only one document referring to the use of the Insect Tenebrio Molitor for biodegradation of plastic waste was found.