This was barely a new discovery at all. A Taiwanese high school sophomore discovered it in 2009. [1]<p>Use Google Translate if you don't read traditional Chinese. [2]<p>[1]: <a href="http://archive.is/27Jb" rel="nofollow">http://archive.is/27Jb</a>
[2]: <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.is%2F27Jb&edit-text=&act=url" rel="nofollow">https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&p...</a>
This is the key part:<p><i>Microorganisms in the worms' guts biodegrade the plastic in the process</i><p>The question is whether we can harness these bacteria to break down plastics in landfills.
Moving forward, can't we tax or ban styrofoam food containers, to encourage vendors to switch to paper and cardboard?<p>Less nasty crap in our landfills, and less plastics in our food and hot drinks, too.
They're also a tasty, environmentally friendly source of protein. [1]<p>1. <a href="http://news.discovery.com/earth/mealworms-beat-beef-as-sustainable-protein-20121220.htm" rel="nofollow">http://news.discovery.com/earth/mealworms-beat-beef-as-susta...</a>
I can't help but think of a Simpsons episode. ... but who will eat all the Darkling Beetles?<p>Oh, no problem for that we brought in Malaysian bats.<p>But what about all the bats?<p>Oh we have a plan: we have Indonesian tree boas that love to eat Malaysian bats.<p>And the boas?<p>That is the best part, come winter, they are not used to the cold and will all die off...
I can just imagine history classes in 2115, "... then they took those valuable hydrocarbons and turned them into one use disposable cups. Then they fed the cups to mealworms removing them forever from productive use as either fuel or plastic. This insanity was common practice until the planet ran out of accessible oil reserves in 2075."
Given that polystyrene is C8H8 [0], how can mealworms live without a source of nitrogen?<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene</a>
We could try recycling? Dig up dead organisms, turn them into brightly coloured cups, use them once and throw them away to be turned into worm food. What an odd system.