Hats off to Daniel Burd, winner of the Canadian National Science Fair, who solved a mystery that will likely make him a very wealthy man.
Tired of having piles of plastic bags in his kitchen, the 17 year old has found a way to make plastic bags decompose. It's easy to do and cheap, simply grind them up, add a bit of yeast, water, earth and heat.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms. If those microorganisms, as well as the optimal conditions for their growth, could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he ground plastic bags into a powder and concocted a solution of household chemicals, yeast and tap water to encourage microbe growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for three months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control.
He also picks up $20,000 worth of scholarship money.
Not bad for a 17 year old kid huh?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/...