Dear Terra,
I recently saw an article that said mealworms can eat plastic. Can this be true?
Signed, Looking On The Bright Side
Dear Looking On The Bright Side,
According to an article I found from Stanford about plastic-eating mealworms, it’s true! They can eat plastic as a steady food source with no ill-effects that the researchers could find. The potential for using mealworms to help clean up plastics like Styrofoam and baggies is exciting, but since many plastics also contain toxic additives, scientists were worried about what would happen to those toxins. They discovered that the mealworms excreted the toxins with no harm to themselves and were still safe to use as feed for other animals like shrimp and chickens!
The toxins were still in the environment, however, which shows that we still need to drastically reduce the amount of plastic produced, along with the toxic additives companies are putting in them, while still rejoicing that scientists are finding ways to clean up our plastic mess! Check out the Stanford article (it’s a quick read with a great video) here: https://news.stanford.edu/2019/12/19/mealworms-provide-plastic-solution/
Keep looking at the positive!
Terra
(Thanks to Pastor Megan for this great tip! Keep those questions and discoveries coming! Send to fleetaholcomb49@gmail.com or put a note in the Dear Terra mailbox at Covenant UMC.)