Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hans von Pechmann prepared a white waxy substance identified as polymethylene in 1898 while investigating diazomethane. His colleagues Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner characterized the material they found.
Commercial distribution began in Britain in 1939 before World War II halted sales. DuPont started large-scale commercial production under license from ICI in 1944 at Sabine River Texas.
LDPE has a density range between 0.910 and 0.940 g/cm³. It features a high degree of short- and long-chain branching that prevents tight packing.
Over 100 million tonnes of polyethylene resins are produced annually worldwide. This volume accounts for 34% of the total plastics market.
The Indian mealmoth larvae metabolize plastic by digesting it through gut bacteria. Galleria mellonella caterpillars also consume polyethylene using saliva enzymes that oxidise the plastic.