Across the industrialized world, insect agriculture is experiencing an innovation boom. The team at Planet Bugs is building a new kind of insect farm -- one that can also process some of our hard to recycle plastic wastes. We're starting with expanded polystyrene (commonly thought of as Styrofoam™). Researchers discovered that the gut bacteria of the larval forms of the darkling beeltle (tenibrio molitor - aka mealworm) will break down this polymer, leaving no trace of styrene in the insect or its frass (i.e., excrement).

At our pilot biofactory we will show how to add an EPS waste stream on top of a traditional mealworm farm in a safe, efficient, and profitable way.