Mealworms Saving the World?

Luke Farinelli 

    On my way to my aunt's house on Christmas, I got the pleasure to drive by the local garbage dump, known to some as the Lewisville Mound. Quite a bit of difference between our town's Flower Mound, yet still very impressive. Impressive in the way that 30% of that landfill is made out of polystyrene foam or styrofoam. 30% of a literal mountain is made out of cups, take-away boxes, packaging, etc. In a place like Texas, that landfill most definitely stands out among the vast plains surrounding it, and to think, 30% of that monstrosity could be ... eaten?
   Yes, you heard me right. We could shave the white, crumbly mess of styrofoam right off of that landfill due to a little creature so common we have them in the class next door: Tenebrio molitor. Tenebrio molitor, commonly known as a meal worm, was found in 2017 to be able to not only eat styrofoam, but live off of its... "nutrients." A second study showcased how the mealworms' gut microbes was the reason it could digest the plastic by breaking the carbon to carbon bonds in the polystyrene. This begged the question: could a concentration of this bacteria be used to deteriorate styrofoam without the mealworm? The answer: yes, but not as fast as the still excruciatingly slow time it takes mealworms. So scientists are still looking for something more effective.
   Due to my fascination with this conservation effort (and the ample availability of mealworms) I decided to head to PetSmart and pick up a can of mealworms myself. The little creepy-crawlys were stored in a small tub full of bran (their-old-food source of choice) and kept in a fridge (to keep them dormant) and had a population of less than 50 larvae. Next, I poured them into a glass container and put in a small piece of styrofoam from our dinner the night before(Thanks Fuzzy's). Lastly, I set up our ipad to do a timelapse video of the mealworms just to see how much progress they made. Here are the results:

Before:
Timelapse:

After: You can see the abrasions of their bites on the edges. (trust me they're there just not that much)


   Now you may be thinking that its not very effective since you cant see any true damage done to the styrofoam, yet keep in mind that the experiments done in 2017 showed that each mealworm can eat about a pill's worth of styrofoam during 24 hours in optimal conditions with no other food source. In my example, I set them up in the morning and stopped them after only 9 hours, did not get rid of their old food source completely, didn't feed them water, had a bright light above them, and had way too big a piece of foam. So overall, not the best showcase of their super power but if you look closely, you can see bites on the side of the foam and see them latch on to the foam in the timelapse.
   So what are the applications of this? Obviously we're not going to just throw some mealworms into our dump and let them do their thing, but we could have "Mealworm Disposal Facilities" just for things like styrofoam. This could be an effective way to slow the growth of 30% of our landfill. In fact, our school could start something similar due to the absolutely enormous amounts of styrofoam waste caused by our cafeteria. For starters, instead of throwing all of it in a landfill, we could try to recycle as much as possible, but a legit solution could be to start a mealworm farm and throw as much styrofoam in there as we can. AP Bio already has us started down the path, we could just expand it. And hey we could make a nice profit selling mealworms to pet stores. All in all, get ready to become acquainted with our little friend the mealworm for the future of environmental conservation. How could you personally use mealworms to help get rid of your waste? Should we start a program to fight unnecessary waste in our school? Do you think we will use this in the future? What could be some negatives to mealworms and do you think we’ll find something better soon?
Sources: 
https://www.popsci.com/mealworms-can-safely-devour-plastics
https://ourworldindata.org/faq-on-plastics#is-it-true-that-some-types-of-worm-can-break-down-plastic
https://www.livestrong.com/article/159954-facts-about-landfill-styrofoam/
https://dallasnews.imgix.net/DFW_landfill_MAIN.jpg?w=1200&h=630&format=jpg&crop=faces&fit=crop

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think that it is great that mealworms can get rid of our waste. Personally, I would make a compost bin and include mealworms so that they would get rid of the waste. I think that it is a good idea to start a program to fight unnecessary waste at our school. I think that we will use mealworms in the future, although, I hope we find a more efficient alternative. However, mealworms release CO2, a greenhouse gas, which hurts the environment.
January 11, 2019 at 1:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Personally speaking, I could use the mealworms to help decrease the large amounts of plastic me and my family use. We could use the mealworms as sort of a “recycling bin”, although the process of the mealworms eating the plastic would take longer than recycling, but it is much more eco friendly. This is one of the negatives to the mealworms, taking too much time, but I believe that we could use these creatures in the future.
January 11, 2019 at 1:16 PM
Unknown said…
I believe that it is important to find new ways of degrading plastic waste or find new ways to produce plastic that can easily be biodegraded. With all the US producing several million tons of plastic every year, I find it interesting that the humble mealworm could help offer a solution to the mounting waste created by people. I think by developing new systems and potentially incorporating mealworms, they could be used in the future as an effective way of degrading plastic waste.
January 11, 2019 at 1:23 PM
Unknown said…
^ unknown is Hannah Lee
January 11, 2019 at 1:25 PM
Anonymous said…
I believe that despite the fact that utilizing mealworms as a solution to reducing styrofoam waste is a little bit inefficient as a long term solution as people also need to take initiative and responsibility for their waste, they still pose a viable option for reducing the amount of styrofoam. This is a significant issue, especially in the context of how it is classified as the hardest Type 6 plastic to recycle due to its brittleness. Especially due to the fact that styrofoam is composed of expanded polystyrene (made from non-renewable crude oil), it takes up a lot of volume in landfills and it can easily be carried by the wind to clog storm drains, become litter, and etc. I believe that the most viable long term solution to reducing styrofoam waste, particularly in schools, would be using compostable plates rather than styrofoam trays to serve food in cafeterias like New York City public schools in response to Mayor de Blasio's ban on styrofoam in an initiative to rid the city of non biodegradable material. As a result of this ban, 30,000 tons of waste would be reduced in the city, which could effectively applied to the whole nation. Thus, I believe that individual states should start off with implementing eco-friendly styrofoam alternatives in school, followed by in businesses and other industries such as packaging along with solutions such as mealworms in order to reduce the amount of waste that humans as a whole produce. (https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2015/03/11/say-goodbye-to-styrofoam/)
January 11, 2019 at 9:38 PM
Anonymous said…
Personally, I think that mealworms are an excellent way to reduce styrofoam waste. However, my household would not benefit from mealworms because we normally don't use styrofoam frequently. I think that we could use a composting bin which would be more effective for my family. A school program would be an amazing idea. The cafeteria utilizes an unnecessary amount of styrofoam on trays and cups. I believe that the mealworms could be used in the future. However, they would not be used on a large scale because of the long period of time it takes to break down the styrofoam. Because of the timing issues, mealworms can pose a negative because it could be too slow to offer a serious alternative. Yet, I think further study will lead to more practical solutions.
January 14, 2019 at 5:54 PM
Anonymous said…
Styrofoam is definitely a huge contributor to our landfills, and it’s an interesting idea to consider mealworms as a solution. However, as a long term solution to the problem of non-biodegradable waste, simply getting rid of the existing waste doesn’t seem viable. I agree that these mealworms offer a promising opportunity to decrease our landfills in the short-term, but we need to rectify our culture of overconsumption and waste to really produce a change. Reaching a point where we consider using these worms to reduce our trash indicates that our habits need to be changed. This experiment was really fascinating, though, and it’s really cool how scientists are working to find innovative solutions for these problems.
January 15, 2019 at 1:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Who would've thought the small, brownish, squirmy mealworm could biodegrade plastic and help reduce human waste? It's so fascinating to learn about the mechanisms and bacteria living inside the mealworm's gut. Though it is impressive that such a tiny creature could possibly save the environment, there are also some problems with relying on them. For example, they have relatively short lifespans. Personally, I would not use mealworms because I am afraid of insects and all things that crawl or slither. However, I think starting a program or club in school to fight unnecessary waste in our school is a good idea. In fact, we may already have one called Globally Green. All in all, it is interesting to read about the mealworm's earth saving capabilities and its potential for important future uses.
January 16, 2019 at 12:25 AM
Anonymous said…
Jacob Powell,

I found this quite interesting as when I was growing up, I was always told that styrofoam was one of the worst possible things that could be in a landfill for the environment. A solution to this issue would be huge. It may take mealworms a long time to break down all of the styrofoam in a giant landfill, but what about a smaller level? If everyone used mealworms on their personal trash at home, it probably would never make it to the landfill. I think this idea of using simple organisms to solve global issues has lots of room to grow. I believe that this method will be applied in the future. One negative of mealworms is that it would take some convincing of using them on a large scale. Like you said, we can't just throw mealworms where ever we want and hope it will solve these issues. I feel like a smaller application of this idea in homes and schools would definitely slow the growth of your landfills.

January 16, 2019 at 12:41 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s crazy to think about how much of an impact mealworms can have on the environment. Personally mealworms could help my family and I get rid of some of our waste at home. Instead of throwing away all of styrofoam cups we could use the mealworms to help eliminate that waste. Starting a program at school that uses mealworms could help reduce the amount of styrofoam significantly. Think of all the landfill space we could save by making small changes like this. A little change in our home and school lives could make a huge difference.
January 16, 2019 at 12:44 PM
Caroline Tuggle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 16, 2019 at 12:47 PM
Caroline Tuggle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 16, 2019 at 12:48 PM
Anonymous said…
I think this is a really cool, innovative way to use natural processes to get rid of excess human waste. Instead of wasting resources and leaving styrofoam to fill the landfills, mealworms are a creative solution to waste issues. This concept can also be applied to everyday use, as well, because mealworms can aid in the composting process. If you leave styrofoam in a container with mealworms, they will naturally break it down over time, much like leaving degradable waste in a container for compost. I learned that mealworms can have a purpose, larger than anyone could previously imagine, and that they can help manage problematic waste products.
January 16, 2019 at 12:49 PM
Caroline Tuggle said…
I believe that incorporating composting containers would greatly aid the mass amounts of waste we produce as a population. Takeout containers, cereal boxes, and countless other “recyclables” are often just thrown into the trash can without thinking twice. If more families began a well kept compost container, the 30% of food waste that is packed into that huge mountain of waste can be turned into a source of nutrients and energy for the meal worms that consume it. As well as providing food for the meal worms, it would greatly cut down the sheer size of the mountain of filth that we continue to contribute to every single day.
(By Caroline Tuggle)
January 16, 2019 at 12:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Before reading this blog, I knew that there was a greater need to be aware in what we throw out. However, I did not know that mealworms could be a possible solution to depleting the amount of styrofoam waste. I, personally, think that mealworms are an amazing solution if they were to be used in the future. Humans have already used up so much and created a huge amount of waste, like the Lewisville Landfill. To make an impact and to choose a more efficient way, for example starting up programs like Globally Green, is the way to go before we can rely on the tiny organisms. I think it is an excellent idea to reinforce our communities to become more aware about our trash and start thinking of new ways to conserve our ecosystem. Beginning with small steps such as creating a compost pile within our households to reuse it to furnish our fertilizers or as to reducing the amount of things we throw away, would increase our chances in saving our planet from more harm.
January 16, 2019 at 12:59 PM
Anonymous said…
The studying of the meal worm could benefit the environment by finding a new way to get rid of styrofoam. Scientists could potetnially find a way to manipulate meal worms genetics to allow them to consume more styrofoam or at a faster rate to better create a way to rid the Earth of styrofoam. Styrofoam itself is very hard to get rid of once it is put in the trash and having a way to get rid of styrofoam would be beneficial to the Earth. I could use meal worms to create a recycling bin for styrofoam in my house but I personally find that disgusting and if the worms were to escape it would be problematic. Maybe in the future we will discover a animal that can eat styrofoam at a more efficient rate or eat more styrofoam at a time than meal worms. The post was very interesting to read about especially because I did not know about meal worms capability with styrofoam.
Adam Ghanem
January 16, 2019 at 1:06 PM
Anonymous said…
I did not know that there was such an easy method to remove waste.
My only question is if such a process would harm the mealworms? It really impresses me that mealworms are able to eat plastic safely.
January 16, 2019 at 1:09 PM
Anonymous said…
It was interesting to learn about another possible usage of meal worms that I did not know before. I would have to agree in the fact that this discovery will be very useful in the future of environmental efficiency, I would also need to agree with the many comments above saying there needs to be a cultural reform. Using these mealworms to get rid of trash is all fine and dandy, but we also need to slow the production of trash as well. Due to the rather slow nature of mealworms, we will have to meet the issue in the middle and compromise between using mealworms and manually reducing trash ourselves. That being said, I am very optimistic as to where this research and development goes!
January 16, 2019 at 1:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Before reading this, I had no idea that mealworms could eat styrofoam. I think this is so interesting! I believe we should do something to help with the styrofoam problem at our school. Maybe a universal compost bin or something similar? I I understand that using the disposable utinsels and trays is more convenient, but I think the issue is bigger than convinience. However, at this time, I'll think about adding some meal worms to my compost bin at home. My dad is an arborist and knows a lot about bugs, so I'll definitely talk to him about the most effective way to incorporate them into our recycling system!
January 16, 2019 at 1:22 PM
Anonymous said…
It is important to pursue viable ways to get rid of plastic waste, and though mealworms are very slow, at least its one step closer to eliminating waste. This solution is beneficial to both mealworms and humans. More schools can implement this solution due to vast numbers of Styrofoam cups used by students. Unfortunately, this method cannot be applied to a larger scale, as it would take too much time to keep up. But Mealworms is still an innovative solution to a complicated problem.
January 16, 2019 at 1:22 PM
Anonymous said…
Your research and experiment on mealworms is really informative. I never knew that they could actually decompose styrofoam, which could be an important aspect in the future to eliminating trash and waste. Finding new ways to get rid of trash that won’t decompose is obviously vital to the sustainability of our planet, and this could maybe a viable solution.
January 16, 2019 at 1:22 PM
Anonymous said…
I think this is so interesting Luke, I would have never thought that mealworms could do such a thing! I think this would make a great alternative to dispose of waste as it would better the environment in somewhat of an organic way in a sense. This would help people out with ridding their waste and putting it to some use instead of in a landfill. This alternative would provide food for these mealworms, and give them the energy and nutrients they would need. It would be cool to see schools implementing this into their ways of ridding their waste (especially their styrofoam), like you said, from cafeterias. But how long would it take for the mealworms to break it all down? Would it take too long? Would this process harm the mealworms at all? Would it be too much plastic? This was super interesting... I had no clue that mealworms were capable of such a thing, awesome!
Chloé Willig
January 16, 2019 at 1:32 PM
Anonymous said…
The application of mealworms in reducing waste is enormous and incredibly intriguing; however, using mealworms on a large scale may not be practicable. Although you do mention mealworm facilities designated specifically for reducing Styrofoam waste, the political and economic hurdles needed to overcome make starting such a facility difficult. However, if more facilities start opening and people begin to understand the utility of the mealworms, the idea may slowly gain traction and such facilities may proliferate around the country. At a local, school level, starting a program using mealworms to reduce waste could potentially be useful, not necessarily because of the waste reduction but more-so because of the shift in mindset required to embrace such an environmentally efficient project. Due to the maintenance required, I personally would not use mealworms at my own home; however, mealworms could spread, albeit slowly, and become a tool against mass pollution in the near future,
January 16, 2019 at 8:30 PM
Anonymous said…
This post was actually really interesting, and very informative. Prior to reading this, I was unaware that styrofoam could be ‘recycled’, let alone in an eco friendly way. Additionally, I did not recognize the value of mealworms outside of being an integral part of many food chains. I definitely see the value, both monetary and environmentally, in the future of using mealworms to recycle styrofoam. Maybe before making plants dedicated for mealworms to do their job, we could build controlled compost piles in our own backyards, allowing mealworms to recycle styrofoam in limited amounts. I feel if schools educated kids about the benefits of mealworms and their abilities, they would be able to pass on to families their knowledge and hopefully act. Some negatives to mealworms maybe that if uncontrolled, they may eat through food sources that you didn’t want them to, and they may increase CO2 levels. All in all I think this is a very interesting solution to a baffling problem.
January 17, 2019 at 5:00 PM
Anonymous said…
It is very interesting how different organisms need different things to survive and thrive. I think the fact that these meal worms can help reduce pollutions shows the balance that exists in the environment and in various ecosystems. I thought that styrofoam was a plastic that could not even decompose and was one of the leading pollutants but this article made me realize that there Is always a way to make decisions the protect the environment because it is created with balance. In conclusion, I think this is a very productive way to resolve the issue of styrofoam which was previously a very serious issue
January 18, 2019 at 10:19 AM
Anonymous said…
This was actually so interesting! Never would I have known that worms could benefit off of styrofoam! Perhaps it could be a global project to mass-raise these worms to help alleviate some of the pressures of trash piling. At my house, we rarely use disposable, unless we are to-go-ing food from a fast food place. Would these worms eat paper as well (paper bags, plates, bowls, cups)? Maybe if we could alter styrofoam and create straws with them, we might be able to cut down on some of the plastic straw waste as well.
January 18, 2019 at 11:34 AM
Anonymous said…
Learning that there is such a simple way to decompose plastic/styrofoam waist is truly fascinating. In this case we as humans can benefit by decreasing pollution and the mealworms also benefit in getting an additional food source. I think it would be great if we can actually put this process into action and start the reduction of plastic waste. The idea seems fully viable but I still have some concerns. How will the population of these mealworms be regulated? And how can we be sure that mealworms will not develop into a large invasive species in the areas which these landfills exist. Overall this was an interesting article and I hope we can start using mealworms to reduce plastic waste as soon as we are sure it is safe for the environment in all aspects.
-Vyom Gupta
January 18, 2019 at 1:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Reducing how fast we make waste and how much waste there is, mealworms have the ability to be able to achieve this goal. With more research and effective application mealworms really can take away a third of the total trash that pollutes our ecosystem. Being able to do this helps on so many levels, first off you will be able to recycle the artificial pollutants into organic material that can again re-circulate into the environment. Also it will remove a lot of wasted landmass allowing for other environments to thrive. However we must be careful when introducing new things as they can quickly get out of hand such as a population boom.
January 22, 2019 at 12:22 PM
Anonymous said…
I beleive that our garbage problem in the United States is absurd, but are mealworms really the right solution? You say in your research that each mealworm can eat around a pill of styrofoam under optimal conditions and no other food source. However, will there really be a lack of an alternate food source? In most landfills, ones that don’t sort out styrofoams, rotting food, plant waste, etc. there will likely be a better food source meaning mealworms won’t be incentivized to actually consume this styrofoam.
January 23, 2019 at 11:57 AM
Anonymous said…
After reading your blog I think mealworms have the potential to be a staple in our future. While many mealworms take a really long time to just eat small bits of styrofoam, imagine how many a giant trash can full of them could eat! It would be fascinating if instead of building up a dumpster people kept large bins full of mealworms in their backyard. That way there would be no need for garbage trucks and giant dumps! Also like you said we could work to get rid of the dumps that already exist by 30%.
January 24, 2019 at 1:28 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree with what Luke said about the mealworms. Natural things such as mealworms that can deteriorate garbage and waste are a good solution to our huge problem. However, there is a valid concern about whether the mealworms, which are so small and can have very minimal affect, are the right solution. Although they are very small, for now, as we have no better and revolutionary solution, they will have to do as a temporary solution because it’s better than doing nothing for the environment.
January 24, 2019 at 1:30 PM
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