Researcher Federica Bertocchini, an avid beekeeper, said she originally stumbled on the idea that this small caterpillar had unusual powers when storing honeycombs a few years ago.We checked that, doing proper lab experiments, and we found that the polyethylene had been oxidised," she told AFP.In her latest research Bertocchini, from Madrid's Margarita Salas Centre for Biological Studies (CIB) and her colleagues analysed proteins in the wax worm saliva and identified two enzymes that could break polyethylene down into small polymers in only a few hours at room temperature."We can imagine a scenario where these enzymes are used in an aqueous solution, and litres of this solution is poured over piles of collected plastic in a waste management facility," said Bertocchini, who said her team were still trying to figure out precisely how the worms degraded the plastic.She said that further down the line the solution could be used in individual houses, where each family could degrade their own plastic waste."