Plastic-eating Mealworms May Help Curb Our Trash Problem - Tech Times

Each year, Americans throw away 25 billion styrofoam cups. Left in a landfill, those cups will still be there, thinking about their glory days at Blockbuster's 1999 office Christmas party, for over 500 years. And as they sit there, their gross plasticky parts seep into the Earth, contaminating our water and poisoning animals. But these engineers have discovered that common earthworms will actually eat up styrofoam like so many Dots at a movie theatre.

Mealworms are actually the larvae of darkling beetles, and presumably got their names from their voracious appetites. They are a staple of classroom learning activities, where third graders put them in a box of corn flakes, and forever swear off cereal.

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