Teen's science project could revolutionize plastic disposal
While the rest of us are floundering around, complaining about how long plastic bags sit on landfills, a 16-year old kid actually went and did something about it. For his science project (this is high school, people: a time when many of us were sitting on our rear ends smoking cigs and listening to music our parents disapproved of) Daniel Burd of Waterloo, Ontario wanted to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic, so he could figure out a way to speed up the process.
He tried several methods to isolate the organisms: he ground plastic bags into a powder, and mixed them with household chemicals to encourage microbe growth. He slowly increased the concentration of the microbes over three months, and then separated the powder from the caterial cultures. He then weighed the plastic - the control group was of a normal weight, but the strips in the bacteria culture weighed about 17% less.
Obviously a true environmentalist, these results weren't good enough for Burd, and after more trial and error, he eventually came up with a solution that resulted in a 43% degredation of plastic bags over six weeks.
As for large-scale production? Well, he's thought of that, too: "
I'm simply in awe of this kid. Oh, and it's not as if his competition were complete idiots, either: Eighth-grader Victoria-Marie Cusson figured out how to turn food waste into gas for cooking.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-29-2008 @ 10:46AM
Karsten said...
Can you imagine what happens to a world which is designed around a material that is impervious to decay and attacks by any living organism and, all the sudden, a microorganism is developed that begins eating this stuff? Even though it would be much better to not use plastic for disposable products it would be a good thing in some ways to know that plastic could be taken care off AFTER it has been used. But imagine what happens to our food storage, health care, any consumer product, etc. if the non-decaying properties of plastics went away? This would completely change everything we know and how we live! Just look around yourself! Most of what you see is made from plastic and we RELY on it to not decay.
I know I am painting an exaggerated picture. But it could be the beginning for an interesting science fiction thriller. Does Micheal Crichton read these posts?
Karsten
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