Project Plastic

Using mealworms (tenebrio molitor) & computer vision to identify types of plastic & decompose/upcycle them.

Authors

• Aryan Gupta (@aryan-cs)

Resources

• Rob Jordan, Stanford News, 2019
• Rob Jordan, Stanford News, 2015
• Yang et al, 2015
• Plastic Tracker
• The World Counts
• Filament Extruder Product by ArtMe3D
• Filament Extruder Demo

Notes

• Verified that mealworms are able to sustain themselves on a pure styrofoam diet
• The styrofoam group did not turn to cannibalism, the organic group often did
• Mealworms shy away from heat (temperatures greater than 80°F) and operate best around 75°F
• Mealworms were indifferent to lighting & color
• Movement & activity greatly slow in heavily fungus-ridden environments
• Classifier worked best with plain, dark backgrounds
• Noticed a "fishy" smell from the styrofoam group, but not from the organic group
• As of 02/03/2024, the organic group has a high mortality rate (>25%) compared to the styrofoam group (0%)
• As of 02/23/2024, over 6 fully grown beetles have been found in the organic group, and 2 from the styrofoam group (almost all mealworms from the styrofoam group have refrained from metamorphosis)
• As of 03/12/2024, no darkling beetles have died from the styrofoam-only diet

Visuals

Optimizations

• Turning to super worms (zophobas morio) in place of mealworms

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome! Please fork the repository and create a pull request to contribute changes.