Apart from its often disputed recyclability, polystyrene foam, as everyone knows who has picked up a coffee or a hamburger to take away, is the perfect material for keeping food warm.

But who would eat it? Mealworms, as Chinese researchers discovered while looking for ways to break down the mountains of plastics waste created by the world’s fast food habits.

Actually, the larvae of the mealworm beetle are said to prefer to eat potatoes, although it’s not clear whether they prefer the boiled variety or McDonald’s French fries. They will settle for the plastic foam, however, if they have no other choice.

Perfect solution to the recycling problem? Maybe. But if waste disposal experts in New York, where a ban on single-trip foam containers was recently overturned, are entertaining thoughts of importing the worms they’d probably best think again. The tiny beetle wannabes could easily be devoured themselves by the city’s already existing army of bedbugs and cockroaches.