[photo of mealworms, Photo Credit to Pixabay]

In a recent interview, Dr.Kim, a researcher at Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), suggested that trying to isolate the microbes that live in the mealworm's gut is a process that scientists are looking to refine as an eco-friendly way of disposing of plastic.

Plastic is the most common form of waste, composed of chemical substances. According to the research that is conducted by the University of Leeds, annual plastic production reaches 52.1 million tons.

Unfortunately, plastic bottles can take up to 100 years to decompose, while styrofoam needs up to 500 years to decompose.

A research team at Stanford University found that mealworms break down styrofoam which is a type of plastic.

In 2015, Dr. Craig Criddle and Dr. Wei Min Wu discovered that mealworms, the larval form of the yellow mealworm beetle, have bacteria in their intestine that break down styrofoam.

Mealworms digest styrofoam without issues, despite the chemicals contained, and excrete half the volume of styrofoam as carbon dioxide and the rest as feces.

In addition, the excrement of mealworms turned out to be safe for use in soil for crops as well as food for livestock.

According to Dr. Kim, using mealworms to decompose plastic has the benefit of being eco-friendly.

While disposing of plastic by incinerating releases toxic gases or materials, disposing of plastics by mealworms does not release such harmful byproducts.

Dr. Kim elaborated, “Since plastic is a polymer material, it has a complex molecular structure. Therefore, it is almost impossible to decompose without a biological process like mealworm digestion. Thus, the fact that mealworms can decompose plastics suggests a new way to dispose of plastic.”

As to why mealworms are not currently being used to dispose of plastic, Dr. Kim pointed out cost as the major limiting factor in using mealworms.

Dr. Kim further added, “You need to break down large chunks of styrofoam into small pieces before mealworms digest them. Also, mealworms do not just eat styrofoam if given a choice between two food sources.”

He continued, “This would charge extra cost to dispose of plastics. Fundamentally, the amount of trash decomposed by mealworms would be insufficient compared to the amount of trash that is produced every year.”

“However, based on the past research on mealworms, we can develop new methods to dispose of plastic. Since it is not the mealworms but the bacteria in their intestines that actually break down plastic, researchers should focus on trying to isolate bacteria,” Dr. Kim proposed.

As humans generate increasing amounts of waste, the issue of how to dispose of that waste is of great importance.

The problem is that modern trash takes too long to decompose because they largely consist of chemical substances. As a consequence, the amount of trash that is produced exceeds the amount of the trash that is decomposed. Trash keeps accumulating and pollutes the environment.

It is good news that mealworms can decompose styrofoams without releasing toxic materials but mealworms cannot yet be used as an immediate solution to dispose of plastics due to cost issues.

However, we can develop new methods to dispose of plastic by drawing upon the fact that it is not the mealworm but the bacteria in their intestines that actually break down plastic.

Further research may pave the way for new, environmentally friendly methods to dispose of plastic.