2021 - "Son, please take out the trash." 2030 - "Son, go feed the worms."

Interesting to note that when trees first evolved, there was nothing capable of breaking them down when they died. It took millenia before bacteria evolved to break down the lignin that makes up the wood in trees.

Does anyone know what affects the plastic eating worms would have on the creatures that eat them if they ingest plastic ? Super curious if it’s been studied and what the results are.

*_"They have adapted to live with plastic. We should do the same"_* aight it's time to eat plastic 🤩

This is really interesting. In the pet trade, mealworms often are used as feeder insects to all manner of exotic pets. I noticed one day, there was a hole in the polystyrene at the bottom of my aquarium. When i looked inside, i found a mealworm hat bored a hole into the polystyrene, and made a went into its Pupa phase. Years later, it clicked. Ooooooh! They can eat plastic!

If mealworms aren’t native to your area don’t let them go!

But do we have to accept that we have to live with non biodegradable plastics at all? Plant based plastic and mushroom based materials that decomposes like other natural things already exist. And I'm sure there's much more like that out there too...plus, endless economic growth is just stupid

50 Years Later: Larva have been sending bugs and predators of these bugs to extinction. Controlling beetle population is deemed impossible due to quantity and size of eggs.

I never realized meal worms had little feet on the bottom. They look too cute to kill now.

This is missing any relevant information. After having watched this video I have not learned anything about plastics or about enzymes that can break them down. Just statements like we SHOULD do this and we should avoid this other thing but nothing substantiated. I would have loved to learn about different kinds of plastics (they are not all the same) and what those enzymes or worms break it down into.

What are the consequences of eating plastic filled worms for their predators? Also considering the ammount of plastic to get rid of, isn't their a risk of the specie becoming invasive?

2:17 - that is not plastic, it is bottle made of hemp and that's why it degraded in 80 days. Plastic needs 1000s of years to degrade. If that was plastic what you showed, our problem would be already solved.

Is that a plastic bag that the worms were shipped in. The irony around my world still unfolding 🥲

I saw this as an ad on “Our Changing Climate” and I actually almost cried a little. I didn’t know that worms were eating the plastic... I knew bacteria had been discovered, but not worms. I’m so overjoyed.

you forgot to mention the part where they can literally only do this with styrofoam and plastic wrap, and how it still comes out as plastic, just in tiny compressed balls.

I kinda want to see an update on this. I wonder how far they have come in the last 9 months

This is great and all, but we need to stop using plastic as much as possible.

This reminds me on Dexters Laboratory when he made Timmy the termite that eats metal lol

"This is how they reduce a piece of Styrofoam" Me:"NICE!!" "In just a week!" Me:"this problem will never end..."

I'm afraid this embrionic stage technology may become an exuse to keep using disposable plastic, or even using it more.

Dude just released a jar of plastic eating worms in his backyard

The enzymes were first found in JAPAN in 2016 (I read the news myself at that time). Saying that Federica 'discovered' the worms in 2017, is implying that she was the first ever person to chance upon this revolutionary way to recycle plastic (yes, worms and enzymes are different, but the enzymes inside the worm were already known). A bit of a 'kill steal' if u ask me.

If you find this interesting you should think about buildong a Worm Composting System. They are smaller than you think and you can help prevent food scraps going to the landfill

"more colorfull than before" ancient greece: *now this look like a job for me*

I hope people don’t see this as an excuse to buy even more plastic products

Beautiful 🤩 But bear in mind that these worms aren’t decomposing plastic, they are making it available to reuse in new plastic products. The plastic still remains in the environment. Please consider reducing consumption.

History has shown that when we try to do this sort of thing, it gets out of hand and wrecks havoc on the eco system. Gypsy moths, certain fish species to name a couple.

This channel simply amazes me every time I watch a video. Congratulations guys for all the work, the editing, all the presenters have an amazing diction... All love from BRASIL 🖖

Would love to see an update video on this, super cool

I remember in the second grade we had meal worms as a science project. They turned into Beatles. I’m just wondering what would happen if we introduced them on a massive scale and what would that do to our environment as well? I guess I’ll have to keep watching the video. This is so interesting and I love it.

A better solution is to stop making and using non-degradable plastics.

maan this sounds like the start of an apocalypse movie, i hope it stays in movies

2036: Warms become global invasive species

First I’ve heard of this. The answer is still for companies to drastically reduce plastic production from the start though. We need extreme guidelines on what types and how much plastic can be produced. Certain things such as Coke bottles should only be legal if they are recycle. All the drink companies would be on the same playing level because consumers would be paying $10 A bottle whether it’s Pepsi or Coke. OR we could buy a tin can for $1.

Its so kind that they ship these worms in plastic bag so they can have snacks for the trip. Faith restored in humanity 🙏

I had a great respect for this channel. I never thought that this channel would end this clip by saying "the worms have started living with plastics and we should learn to do the same.". I did not expect this from DW Channel.

I was really waiting to hear about how we were gonna clean our oceans, cause that's one problem we really don't know how to solve. Worms eating plastic in landfills, even though it might be a decent solution, I believe is more a cool novel idea rather than a sustainable solution. The scale of which we'll need to produce worms or bacteria is staggering, and what if it were to become commonplace and start degrading plastic in use. The best we have is to simply recycle or burn. Besides the toxic smoke, which we can filter, the co2 contents of digestion is the same as incineration, generally speaking at least.

Wait until birds start discover this new dish

I remember we had mealworms in our class. We had a project to take care of the worms until it grew into beetles

This channel is beautiful indeed! Keep the good job DW!!!

7:17 In many countries, there are no landfills. The govt burns the trash in incinerators. Very efficient incinerators can double as power plant.

There is a polystyrene box in the disused plot next to our house and, when I first saw what was left of it, I noticed that it was full of small holes as though something had been eating holes in it, just as insects eat into plants. Maybe this is what is happening here too.

"you're free now!" the bird in the tree above "yeah so is my next meal"

It’s not going to do ANYTHING unless we STOP wasting plastic. Otherwise we would need so many of those worms that the amount of plastic eaten outweighs the amount of plastic being wasted which is very unlikely!

Wait, After everything the experts said he just releases non--native insects into the environment?

Cool video! Glad I found this channel.

My lizard just cares about how tasty the worms look

Several countries in Europe burn waste plastic in large incinerators, producing heat and energy in the process. That process actually does turn the plastic back into its base components: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, chloride....

Stupid question: Do the worms/enzymes and all that actually break the plastic molecules to normal bioelements or does this just make the big piece of plastic go out of sight and in the end just worsen the situation we have: plastic would literally be everywhere but we just cant see it anymore? eg 25 percent of drinking water would consist of plastic.

Great video, i raised mealworms and used them to biodegrade styrofoam as a science proyect, i dint even know this was something very new!. While they do eat styrofoam it is true that having a lot of worms eating plastic is not a realistic solution to solve the problem. Still the use of enzymes to solve the problem is something really interesting. I find it very likely that soon in the future we will see those enzyme reactors to biodegrade plastics.

Wow the editing on this video is superb

I saw someone making diesal from plastic! That’s very useful

do these mealworms actually complete their life cycle on a foam diet?

What can help is holding major plastic and oil corporations responsible and to stop producing plastic as a necessity item for everything.

I thought the problem with plastics is economical, since the waste is so expensive to recycle, which it can, but making it from oil and gas is so much cheaper.

The birds are going to love those worms

I’m hoping there’s no side effects to the worms eating plastic. That and they actually prefer eating other things over plastic things cuz then it’s a bit sad realising they probably won’t be able to do much help

If you starve them from eating anything ... They will surely Eat something

Children: grandpa look at these warms I found Grandpa: ah the good old days He would say it as he held a grenade full of plastic eating worms

Literally the plot of 'Maggots: The Record'.

omg im buying these right now, John is so happy honestly a mood

Kardashians watching that 👁 👄 👁

9:10 birds : yeah here come food

Creating low grade plastic for which we can easily produce enzymes to degrade and then reuse can also be an interesting option

This documentary feels incomplete.

That styrofoam cube was not really much smaller than before

Fascinating! I had no idea. Thank you.

I think that those mealworms just became some birds' meal...!

You need tons and tons of them and it will get out of hand will quick

How "Stop Making Plastic" WOULD solve our plastic pollution problem.

We've had two Plastic Revolutions and we are currently in a third Plastic Revolution.

After reading the thumbnail title at first, I thought that plastic was eating worms... WoW

I love mealworm why? They feed my Tarantula

Very interesting topic and can be a problem solving strategy in the future.

Slugs eat plastic pipe insulation and have been doing so for years, they seem to thrive on it, ok they move a little sluggish.

Damn some birds became happy when he left the scene

these are the youtube channels which deserve 100 million subs and yet we have rather useless channels sitting at the top

Wow! What a great story! Excellent video! I love the comment that we don’t need to stop using plastic, we just need to know how to use it properly.

Okay if you do this with plastic you collect.The meal worms themselves could probably be used as well to make biobased polymers from as well. If you don't do it with collected plastic you're going to create another problem. Living animals such as chickens eating this worms, we eating the chickens and the microplastics ending in our body. Also.. in the wild it is very unlikely the meal worms will change their diets to plastic. 2nd issue is that we will never have enough meal worms to get rid of all plastic waste. So in the end it will only make a small fraction of all the waste. 3rd issue is that we are talking about styrofoam. What about the most common packaging like PET, Polypropylene (PP) and Polyethylene (PE)?? (For people who dont know: PP & PE are used to make materials like plastic bags; PET are the plastic bottles) Also what about other plastics that are now already very difficult to recycle such as PU or rubber? (PU is polyurethane and is everywhere; Insulation materials, dashboard of your car, matrasses, ...) Sorry, not sorry. But this is hidden marketing for a company that sells the meal worms. :-p However I think the science behind the chemical breakdown in their bodies is more interesting. What about using the enzymes to chemically recycle the plastics in the same way they do? Chemical recycling already exists. But maybe we can do it in a better way. We don't have to make the things to advanced. I like simple straight forward solutions. It's not always possible to keep it simple, but sometimes by going too advanced we often create new problems we didn't see coming beforehand. Also... If anyone rich enough reading this and is willing to hire me as a consultant feel free to contact me. ;-)

It was cute to see the little mealworms beating released to save the environment.

"It's a design problem... we're using plastic to make stupid conveniences" Karens: where will I drink water from if it doesn't come in a plastic bottle? I need hydrated y know

Mealworms are also available in most pet stores. A lot of fish and lizard Keepers feed their animals with them

Now that's the research that we need to put our money to.

Comes out in an hour to check on the worms, Sees a whole bunch of birds.

Lol wait mealworm beetles are pests. that's the equivalent of releasing an army of baby rats in your yard.

Amazing! Everyone should know!

*Passionately throw mealworms into the ocean*: Please, save the ocean for us. Mealworm: OMG! I can't swim!

It’s an important video and knowledge to share with the world thank you! they are kind of cute like us. I would not like to have them living in my house but they might be more skilled than most of us solving the plastic pollution crisis and my budgerigars like to eat them in air dried form sometimes.

The amount of times you said “worms” is too much, they’re BEETLES!

Completely wrong message... The amount of plastics produced and dumped on daily basis is way way too much for worms. They just poked few holes and not eating it. Just imagine if you are left hungry with some grass clipings you may endup eating a few ones to rid hunger same way these worms are doing.

So that's where my old phone went. Worms ate my plastic phone.. 🤣👌

Maybe, the main idea of this movie that we should eat the plastic to.

what if we develop a microplastic-eating bacteria, study other bacterias that can breathe water and get eaten by others, combine their nutrients amd structure together, and create a micro-plastic eating, eco-friendly ocean-surfing bacteria that will help clean our oceans and be offered as a new food source?q B^) we could use simulations in the lab to find a suitable predator to keep things in check, and it could evolve to evade as well. we gotta be careful not to accelerate bacterial evolution, though and perhaps we gotta use tweezers for some parts

Amazing Video, you got a sub from me! I am curious to what is the nutritional value of plastic? These enzymes are breaking up the plastic polymers to its core components, so simple carbon atoms, so that's below any 'nutritional' structures like that of a protein or carbohydrate so how do the worms utilise it? Does that make sense? haha. It is 1am right now so I could just be being really dumb right now! Secondly, if we've identified it's an enzyme within the worm couldn't we extract the enzyme properties from within the worm and recreate it in a lab or harvest the bacteria and grow it in a lab? Thanks!

Everybody gangsta till ur mcdonalds cup starts leaking you look down and there's a worm in it

I especially liked the ending

I have a hypothesis. Nature is very adaptable, and organisms are adaptable as well. With the principal of natural selection, I believe that in the future, more microbes will evolve the ability to break down plastic, and use it as it's carbon source. But until that happens, we must be careful.

This is the FUTURE!!

This proves that nature adopts

I’d like to know if their waste is biodegradable and what kind of nutrients if any are in the plastic/styrofoam. Are they really eating because it’s food to them, or are they eating it because there’s nothing else to eat. It seems to me all they’re doing is breaking it down into smaller bits. This would contribute to the micro plastic issue maybe even to worse degree since these micro plastics are now smaller. Just because we see a large volume of plastic reduced by these worms doesn’t mean it’s just gone.