Did you know people produce more than 300 million tons of plastic each year? Much of it gets tossed into our planet’s ecosystems.
Fish, birds, and other animals can swallow pieces of this plastic. The animals’ bodies can’t digest it, or break it down, and the plastic can kill them.
Recently scientists discovered that a type of caterpillar could help us clean up some of the plastic pollution. The larva of the greater wax moth loves to eat plastic. And, unlike other creatures, it can digest it.
These small caterpillars can’t eat all the plastic in the world. But more studies of how their bodies work could lead scientists to a solution for getting rid of the plastic.