Caterpillars that munch through plastic may help us understand how to break the substance down.
Earlier this year, scientists identified several species of caterpillar that appear to eat and digest polyethylene plastic - the most common type of plastic.
Researchers have now said the insect larvae cultivate a cocktail of digestive bacteria that process the plastic.
To find out more about the process, pantry moth larvae were fed polyethylene before their gut bacteria was examined, researchers told the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in North America.
Caterpillars that ate a control diet of bran and wheat had guts mostly dominated by Turicibacter, a group of bacteria commonly found in the digestive tracts of animals, Science News reported.
The results showed the caterpillars that ate the plastic had higher levels of the bacteria Tepidimonas, Pseudomonas, Rhizobiales and Methylobacteriaceae.
Some of these bacteria have been shown to colonise and help degrade plastics in the ocean, according to the study's co-author Anisha Navlekar, of Texas Tech University.
Therefore, dousing old plastic in a similar mix of bacteria may help speed up the degrading process.
Around 80 million tonnes of polyethylene is produced every year, which is used to make plastic bags and other packaging that ends up in landfill sites and in the ocean.
The volume of plastic in our seas is a major cause of concern with an estimated 12 million tonnes of plastic waste entering the oceans each year.
This high level of plastic pollution is having a devastating impact on marine wildlife, including on deep-sea creatures living far from land, which were recently found to contain traces of manmade fibres and plastics.
