“The team began by feeding three sets of worms three different diets of common plastics – high-density polyethylene, which is notoriously difficult to break down, polypropylene, and polystyrene for 30 days. (A lucky control group was served oatmeal.)

The scientists then extracted the microbiomes from the plastic-munching worms’ guts and incubated them in flasks filled with synthetic nutrients and the three plastics, letting them develop into an artificial gut over six weeks.

What they found was that the lab-grown guts, compared to the control group of worms, had developed far more plastic-degrading bacteria, and each showed superior efficiency with the specific material it had been fed on.”

From Phys.org.