Mealworms Doing Their Part to Save the Planet

November 6, 2015

Mealworms Doing Their Part to Save the Planet You know all that unrecyclable stuff you have to throw away that ends up going to a landfill so it can pollute our earth by sitting there for a million years? Well, as it turns out, a new solution has arisen to this problem in the form of mealworms. While they may seem gross and you might feel the need to quickly step away at the sight of one, these guys have secret super powers that just might help save this planet. Researchers have found that mealworms can biodegrade Styrofoam and other plastics that would otherwise sit in a landfill and slowly kill our planet for millions of years. We may be able to tackle plastic pollution by simply feeding it to worms. Mealworms can actually safely eat this stuff and even derive energy from it. In fact, researchers have found that mealworms can biodegrade materials that scientists had formerly thought to be impossible to biodegrade. The other amazing discovery was how fast these little guys can break down this stuff. It took them less than twenty four hours to turn a huge pile of Styrofoam into CO2. The researchers found that the secret to their super powerful gut is an enzyme secreted by the microbes in the worms that acts like sledgehammer against anything they eat. What do you think about mealworms saving the planet?