If you didn’t already know, plastic is everywhere. It’s in everything. It’s used by everyone. It seems inescapable. Basically, humanity is pretty addicted to plastic.
And people don’t do that good of a job at recycling it since it can be hard to recycle.
Because of this, plastic is gradually blanketing the Earth--from landfills to ocean floors to community streets to forests. And it takes centuries to biodegrade. So it just stays there and messes things up.
It’s scary stuff. I don’t know about you, but I’m not trying to live on a planet where I have to wade through a sea of styrofoam cups,potato chip bags and cellophane balls to get to the grocery store.
But now I can breath a sigh of relief because I might not have to live in that world after all. The slow march of plastic domination may have just come to a halt--thanks to worms.
Yes, those slimy little guys who hate concrete and fishing hooks, and love a nice strip of shaded dirt to slink around in.
Apparently, some baby worms can eat plastic. In fact, they love plastic. In fact, plastic is all they can eat.
Huh?
If you’re like me, you might have a creeping suspicion that this is fake. Seems a bit too “wow, that’s the perfect solution.”
A worm that ONLY eats plastic?
1/ Why didn’t the world know about this before?
2/ Why aren’t they used everywhere?
Researchers have discovered that some mealworms can eat nothing but plastic and they turn this plastic into dirt.
Worm + Plastic = Dirt! What an equation!
These worms are legit savoring styrofoam. Like it’s a nice fresh salad. Or a nice juicy burger. They get the nutrients they need and they take the carbon from the plastic to make fresh dirt.
Get to work!
Now, they do munch at a pretty slow pace.
So countries can’t dispatch teams of mealworms tomorrow and see landfills shrink over night.
100 mealworms can eat about 40 milligrams of plastic per day. 1 pound is 453,592 milligrams.
So...yeah. You need a lot of worms and a lot of time to really get anywhere in reducing our planet’s piles of plastic..
But, hey, it’s a start. Scientists are starting to study the mechanics of the digestive tracts of these worms in the hopes of harnessing the transformative power. Being able to duplicate the process on a wide scale would be the real breakthrough the planet needs.
I’m not about to unload a batch of worms into my recycling bin, but I’m definitely excited to see where this research goes.
And I’m excited to see how this contributes to discussions about the climate. Because a cleaner, healthier world is going to be a world with less poverty.