Styrofoam & Mealworms
In 2015, a Stanford University and Beihang University research team discovered that Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) eat and decompose Expanded Polystyrene (commonly Styrofoam). Over several digestive cycles they break down its long carbon chains, transforming its bulky white body into a velvety powder, then a harmless gray particulate. What a miracle! The decay of synthetic chemistry that resists decomposition, the making of an earth material from a sort of anti-earth, a small glimpse of restorative alchemy performed by the “lowly worm” mitigating the destructive habits of the so called “superior” human species. Since I discovered this research in 2019, I have centered my practice around collecting, repurposing, and decomposing Styrofoam waste.
