Stanford News reports on the dining habits of the mealworm:
Enter the mighty mealworm. The tiny worm, which is the larvae form of the darkling beetle, can subsist on a diet of Styrofoam and other forms of polystyrene, according to two companion studies co-authored by Wei-Min Wu, a senior research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford. Microorganisms in the worms’ guts biodegrade the plastic in the process – a surprising and hopeful finding. …
In the lab, 100 mealworms ate between 34 and 39 milligrams of Styrofoam – about the weight of a small pill – per day. The worms converted about half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide, as they would with any food source.
An interesting mealworm indeed! Somehow, I don’t see giant farms devoted to the critters, but I do wonder if it’ll be possible to isolate the unique bacteria responsible for the digestion, and use them in moderate sized facilities devoted to degrading the plastics we produce into something more …. palatable. Ahem. Or is the digestive system of the mealworm a required context for the digestion to work? Of course, 50% converted to CO2 isn’t the best news in the world, but perhaps some careful collection of the greenhouse gas will be possible.
So, if we suppose we were to attempt to use mealworms to reduce polystyrene on a commercial basis, what would be the risks? Mealworms do feed on grain and can invade storage facilities. On the other hand, they are also used as pet food, as they have high protein content. They do not seem to be of especial danger, and are widespread. Human even eat them … so use them to dispose of the waste polystyrene, and then have a meal ourselves?
(h/t Margaret Badore @ TreeHuggers.com)
