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> The first bug that eats plastic was discovered in a Japanese waste dump in 2016.

That wasn't a bug! It was the bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis, if my Google-fu serves me right.

Maybe the whole article (meaning the title as well) is off?

The entire article talks about microbes. In the article's context, it's quite clear that bug is used in the colloquial meaning for that, as in "a stomach bug", not in the sense of insects or arthropods.

They're phrasing it that way for sensationalism.

To me, this sense of the word "bug" can only refer to diseases.

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