Eco-mealworm Lv2: Modular Bio-Upcycling of Waste Plastic into Humic Fertilizer
Every year, millions of tons of waste plastic are incinerated or landfilled. Eco-mealworm Lv2 reverses that flow. With no live insects involved, it runs a mealworm-gut-derived microbial consortium and enzyme system in industrial reactors to open the benzene rings of waste plastic and convert it into a humic substance that revitalizes soil. In a 100 kg reactor, 40% of pretreated polystyrene is converted within 24 hours; after 72 hours, no residual polystyrene is detectable. Oxygen content rises from about 1% to 43-44%, indicating a hydrocarbon transformed into an oxygen-rich humic structure, now undergoing EU REACH registration. Lv2 is the industrial evolution of Lv1, a CES 2025 Innovation Awards Honoree in which live mealworms consumed styrofoam, now scalable without insect-rearing infrastructure. The process is designed for hi-cube container modules that install at waste-generating sites and scale out in parallel, returning plastic to farmland rather than to fuel oil.