Plastic-eating caterpillars

Available for over a year

Polythene from plastic bags and bottles is polluting every corner of the Earth. So when a colleague of Professor Chris Howe, at University of Cambridge, discovered wax moth caterpillars can eat plastic, they wanted to find out whether it could be a useful tool to clear up waste plastic. Image: A wax worm chews a hole through plastic. Polyethylene debris can be seen attached to the caterpillar. Credit: Federi