Pengaruh Ketebalan Kantung Plastik terhadap Degradasi, Digesti, dan Kesintasan Larva Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), serta Pemanfaatannya sebagai Bahan Materi Leaflet

Abstract

The increasing of disposable plastic bags use affecting environmental problems cause it takes thousands of years to degrade naturally. Some efforts were already done to overcome this problem but it wasn't effective yet. Therefore other alternative solutions are needed. Larvae of Tenebrio molitor L. known as mealworms potentially to be biodegradation agents of plastic. Mealworm has symbionts bacteria in its gut that secretes plastic depolymerizing enzymes. This study has purpose to determine the effect of variations thickness of plastic bags on the degradation, digestion, and survivorship of Tenebrio molitor L. larvae and the results of this study become material for leaflets that can be read by the public. This study used a sample of 900 larvae Tenebrio molitor L. and each bottle contains 100 larvae with a control group, 2 types of treatment, and 3 repetitions. The control group was fed concentrate starter phase chicken feed, treatment group 1 (P1) was fed HDPE plastic bags with a thickness of 0.1mm, and treatment group 2 (P2) was fed HDPE plastic bags with a thickness of 0.2mm. The results show that there is the effect of variations in the thickness of the plastic bags on the degradation, digestion, and survivorship of Tenebrio molitor L larvae. The greater thickness of the plastic bags, the lower degradation, digestion, and survivorhip abilities of larvae. The highest degradation occurred at P1 of 0,001 (±0,00052)mg/day and the lowest is P2 0,0004 (±0,00028)mg/day. The highest digestion occurred at P1 where a total average of 0.4568 (±1.65728) fragments, and the lowest is P2 0.4012 (±2.09839) fragments. The highest survivorship occurred at control group which is 97,7667 (±2,90877)%. The leaflet validation result shows that leaflet is very valid or proper to read which has average percentage of validation 89,14%.