Plastic Bags Are a Feast for This Caterpillar

A chunk of plastic after 10 worms spent about 30 minutes feasting. (Credit: CSIC Communications Department) A caterpillar that can eat plastic and produce an industrially useful compound while doing so could take a bite out of the global scourge of plastic trash, a new study finds. Plastics typically resist breaking down, and as plastic use has risen exponentially over the past 50 years, plastic garbage is piling up in landfills and could wreak havoc on wildlife and the environment for centuries.