OMG: Bugs Ate My Bag!

July 02, 2008

More evidence that kids will save us from environmental purgatory: A teenager in Ontario figured out a way to to decompose a plastic bag over the course of several months instead of several hundred years. Daniel Burd, a 17-year-old student at the Waterloo Collegiate Institute, was hopeful about the idea that plastic bags would break down at all. Using household chemicals, yeast, tap water, plastic-eating microbes, and a grocery bag, he set out to find which bacteria would do the best job.

Burd discovered that combining Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas bacterial strains worked in tandem to produce the best results. Other researchers had discovered the Pseudomonas strain's abilities, but as far as Burd and his science teacher knew, no one had gone this far. The bag broke down about 43% in six weeks. He told The Record, We're using nature to solve a man-made problem.

For his ground-breaking (pardon the pun) work, Burd received the $10,000 top prize at the 2008 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa. His discovery did get some buzz in Canada and a little bit stateside when the news came out, but clearly it warrants more international attention. And give that kid a college scholarship! Now, where'd I put that Pseudomonas?

Photo Credit: Chris Denbow

Comments

[Lori Cuthbert]

OMG - it's a dream come true! Now if he can just figure out how to break down 100% of the plastic, we'd be golden. I didn't think plastic broke down completely though, ever. What happens when the bugs die? Or poop?