With the aid of these tiny creatures, the circular ‘chitofoam’ system (see more here) takes a harmful packaging material and regenerates it to create a circular solution for styrofoam waste management. Lightweight, water-resistant & backyard-compostable packaging all images by charlotte böhning and mary lempres of doppelgänger moreover, styrofoam is difficult and uneconomical to recycle, resulting in occupying almost 30% of our landfill waste. and each of these cups may need half a millennia to degrade.

researches show that solely americans discard approximately 25 billion styrofoam cups every year. and throughout the years, it just cracks into smaller pieces dubbed ‘microplastics’. developed by charlotte böhning and mary lempres of doppelgänger, this material is shock-absorbent, lightweight, and water-resistant, suitable for food packaging, as it can be modeled into cups, packing peanuts, and other shapes.Įxpanded polystyrene, also known under the name ‘styrofoam’, is not biodegradable.

The circular ‘chitofoam’ system transforms the exoskeletons of plastic-eating mealworms into biodegradable polystyrene substitutes. Food and Agriculture Organization calls insects “a healthy and highly nutritious food source with a high content of fat, protein, vitamins, fibers and minerals.”įollowing Tuesday’s approval by EU states, a EU regulation authorizing dried yellow mealworms as a food will be adopted in the coming weeks.Biodegradable polystyrene from plastic-eating mealworms Insects as food represent a very small market but EU officials said breeding them for food could have environmental benefits. Researchers said the worms, either eaten whole or in powdered form, are a protein-rich snack or an ingredient for other foods.Īllergic reactions may occur for people with pre-existing allergies to crustaceans and dust mites, the Commission said. The move came after the EU’s food safety agency published a scientific opinion this year that concluded worms were safe to eat. The European Union’s 27 nations gave the greenlight Tuesday to a proposal to put the Tenebrio molitor beetle’s larvae on the market as a “novel food.” BRUSSELS (AP) - Dried yellow mealworms could soon be hitting supermarket shelves and restaurants across Europe.

Download eating mealworms