SUBMITTED PHOTO Riley Immel, Sophia Stacey and Nicholas Samuelson speak to a group of Grade 6 Southview Community School students during a presentation on worms.
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Students at Southview Community School will be getting a unique lesson this winter from the Youth Advisory Board.
The group will be working with Grade 6 students to see if a specific type of worms can help humanity with its plastic problem.
“They’re called wax worms because they eat the honey comb from beehives,” said advisory board president Riley Immel. “Plastic is similar to beehives so it’s actually harmless to them and they progress through their life cycle normally.
“We’re working with the kids to teach them about the worms and about the plastic problem humans have.”
The Grade 6 students will work with the Youth Advisory Board to see if they’re on to something.
“What we do is get the worms and put them in an aquarium – that’s where they’re stored,” he said. “There’s oats and honey on the base layer at the bottom of the aquarium, then on top we have plastic.
“To get to the good stuff, the worms have to eat through the plastic. While they’re eating plastic, they turn it into poop, essentially, and that is biodegradable.”
The group is experimenting with types two and four plastic which consists of things like milk jugs and grocery bags. Immel says a long term goal is to see if the worms can help around the world.
“We’re starting small,” he said. “The experiment we’re testing right now is to see if we put more worms than previously tested, will they break down more plastic?
“It’s small now and there’s research being done in other places, but I would love to see this have greater implications.”
Shona Dickie is helping oversee the advisory board and she says this is a great project for the kids to be involved in.
“The whole point of the project is to show that there’s other ways for us to recycle,” she said. “They’ll be going over how we use plastic and the issues around plastic with the youth.”
