A team of scientists believe efforts to control plastic waste may be improved by feeding it to mealworms, or darkling beetle larvae.
According to NBC News, researchers at Stanford University led a study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology detailing how mealworms live on a diet of Styrofoam. The plastic is a bit of a nuisance since it is very much non-biodegradable and manages to spread its flaky bits easily.
"Our findings have opened a new door to solve the global plastic pollution problem," study co-author Wei-Min Wu, a senior research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, said in a press release.
A supervisor of plastic research and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, Craig Criddle said he was surprised by the study's results.
"There's a possibility of really important research coming out of bizarre places," he said in the release. "Sometimes, science surprises us. This is a shock."
For their study, the researchers observed 100 mealworms consume about 34 to 39 milligrams of Styrofoam per day. Of the plastic they consumed, they were able to convert about half of it into carbon dioxide.
"Another area of research could involve searching for a marine equivalent of the mealworm to digest plastics, Criddle said. Plastic waste is a particular concern in the ocean, where it fouls habitat and kills countless seabirds, fish, turtles and other marine life," read Stanford's news release. "More research is needed, however, to understand conditions favorable to plastic degradation and the enzymes that break down polymers. This, in turn, could help scientists engineer more powerful enzymes for plastic degradation, and guide manufacturers in the design of polymers that do not accumulate in the environment or in food chains."
