Teen Finds Way to Decompose Plastic Bags in Just 3 Months!

good job dude!

they probably can spray the landfills with a solution full of these plastic eating guys and be done with it...

This is very interesting and exciting.

What does the plastic decompose into? Does it have value?

That's brilliant indeed! But what happens after the bacteria are done with the plastic? What's the end product?

Of course, one would also have to make sure that said bacteria don't end up all over the place ... I wouldn't want them nibbling away at my laptop, for instance!

Interesting. And the digestion output is water. Could these be turned loose in the Pacific Gyre?

So let's see...

Option A--try to collect all of the five TRILLION bags produced each year and put them in biodigesters.
Option B--try a global experiment of concentrating microbes in the ocean.

Or, of course, we could use cloth bags. Just an idea.

so...

the biggest use we have for fossil fuels that keeps the carbon fixed in organic molecules (plastics) might someday have an outcome that releases carbon in a gaseous form? how is this good?

breaking down plastics is probably a really bad idea; we should instead focus on recycling plastics and keeping the carbon fixed in organic molecules.

Brilliant! Thank you.

You can't generally just dump microbes into sea water and hope they do their thing... But it seems to feasible to get industrialized countries surrounding the gyre to each contribute an older aircraft carrier or two to act as floating recycling/decomposition factories. Staff the ships with some master merchant marine officers and let Greenpeace (or similar) volunteers run the collection/recycling/decomposition bit.

You could probably even get the Discovery Channel to sign on and do a reality TV show of sorts. Then you'd have mass exposure to the problem - while working on alleviating the symptoms!

Lets hope this is adopted on a mass scale so we can continue to use and abuse plastics without regard, green activist orgs, open up your financial war chests!!!

Nice bit of work for the little fellow but...

All very nice until you remember that ultimately the carbon in the bags is going to be converted to CO2 and back into the atmosphere. Far better to just collect the bags and put them in a hole somewhere or something and keep the carbon bound and out of the atmosphere. It's the same kind of dumb solution as biofuels..which isn't a solution at all. If you have the carbon bound up already, you shouldn't be re-releasing it into the atmoshphere. CO2 from biofuels or "naturally" composted plastic bags is identical to the stuff from evil petroleum and the impact is the same.

On the scale of environmental problems, plastic bags are about a 1 out 10, where as Global Warming must be pretty close to 10.

What would be amazing is if was possible to use these bacteria to produce biofuels think about every time you recycled a grocery bag you'd also be helping the energy crisis.

What would be amazing is if was possible to use these bacteria to produce biofuels think about every time you recycled a grocery bag you'd also be helping the energy crisis.

From what I understand, when they say plastics break down they are actually misleading us. Plastics do break down, yes, but only into individual polymers that still have ill effects on organic life. The problem with much of the plastic in the oceans is that it is breaking down into these polymers and that animals are ingesting them.

Of course, if I'm incorrect I'd love to be shown the data that suggests plastics can break down into harmless compounds.

"Could these be turned loose in the Pacific Gyre?"

As well intentioned as this sounds, it also sounds like it has some potential unintended consequences.

Introducing foreign entities to a new environment sometimes has some really bad consequences.

Congratulations to that kid. Its really inspiring. For everyone who says you need a PhD to make a difference, here is living proof that such phrases are just poor excuses.

Great job. I'm inspired!

YAY! This makes me very happy.

"Interesting. And the digestion output is water. Could these be turned loose in the Pacific Gyre?"

Introducing invasive species into a habitat or niche where they are not found naturally, has often been proven to create more harmful effects than anticipated.. Introducing these particular strains of bacteria into non-native environment would depend greatly upon where the bacteria is found naturally and should be researched thoroughly before introduction... E.O. Wilson, discusses invasive species in his amazing book "The Future of LIfe" This book is a must read for everyone!!

Awesome... would like to know more about this bacteria and how we can get rid of plastic responsibly. This could become a huge business, I hope the kid will get a piece of it.

Only if they can survive the salinity. It might need an enclosed space to ferment, but that could be done with treatment ships.

The world community should be rallying around this idea. Get this kid an agent!

It's probably a bad idea to turn loose large quantities of organisms which do not occur natively, especially into the oceans where it could become global really quickly. Best that we contain our science (experiments), as you never know what ramifications our actions will have, especially with introducing a new (quantity of) species to the environment. This kind of behavior has backfired on us humans many times already. This is not to bar out that this kid is super clever, and that we should seriously consider this in our plastics recycling/ disposal programs, but better to keep the project out of the wilderness.

Daniel Burd should be considered a hero!! Maybe he can figure out how to run cars on water or make a fuel efficient car that is efficient!!

"Could these be turned loose in the Pacific Gyre?"
Releasing large populations of new organisms to an unregulated, foreign environment in order to 'solve' one problem has a long and storied history of backfiring horrendously.

Awesome to see someone figure it out! Brilliant! Is there a place where more specifics on the process can be found?

that is awesome! :D

Poor turtle!

Super idea,Ive seen the harm of plastics while locating sea urtles on Padre Isl TX.. Get this kid going or will some giant corp stop it 4 some reason unbeknown 2 t e world. HUmm may some fool might try to stop it by claiming a rise in something else.. Lake Levels, or maby cause the rockies to grow an extra 3 cm every billion yrs

this boy needs serious media coverage. I"m emailing Oprah.

Forget about getting the kid an agent right now.. lets get the formula made, out there to all land fills, A global scale awarness should be done. In Ireland the Government charges the shopper for getting Plastic Bags from shops it jumped from 15cent to 22cent last year and is after removing up to 90 percent of shopping bags sold in Ireland, The money gathered by the levy was used to raise money for environmental initiatives.. I think that a small bit of global pressure and the Irish Government will send some of the TAX towards the kid for use of the formula.. if not someone sign him up to paypal and leave all drop him a few cent/pence - euro/dollor/pounds.

I've also wondering, if plastic bags don't decompose for centuries, why I see so many of them falling to pieces in the sunlight? Perhaps they are merely fragmenting, not being chemically changed, but most of the plastic bag problems come from them being flying around, getting stuck in trees, injuring animals, littering the ground.

It looks to me like sunlight alone can eliminate most of these problems. After all, if the particles of plastic are small enough, they are as innocuous as grains of sand (except for leaching plasticizers, etc.--that's a big caveat).

And I have pointed out before that plastic is a great way to sequester carbon--for a few centuries at least. If we sorted and buried it, we could dig it up and use it again when the oil supply dips, unless microbes evolve a taste for it in the meantime.

But kudos to the lad for finding a potent, probably cheaply upscalable method of disposal.

There's a plethora of solutions to our problems but no political or economic drive to scale them up to meaningful levels.

Hi,

Excellent article and would be great if it can be replicated vereywhr.

I would like to know more about this, how this is done and what is the feasibility of doing this on large scales. Can you pls send the details

raman

Awesome!
Can't wait to see what this leads to. It certainly doesn't hurt that this kid is from my hometown either. ;-)
Way to go, Daniel!

This is incredible! Why don't things this important make front page news, instead of blah meaningless events like Prez Bush's daughter getting married.

how can i contact who is representing this young man or the young man himself

Is it possible that higher concentrations of these organisms than normal could cause some unwanted effects? Yes.

So most likely, this would need to be a self-contained solution. So we would have this "fermenter" in a centralized location....say one per city or something like that. It still doesn't really solve the problem of the crap in the Pacific, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, producing less waste is still the goal. This is only an excuse for some to be lazy.

Per Scott: I don't see this as some trying to be lazy, this is someone trying to solve the issue of unmeasurable tons of waste, including plastic, filling our world. If we can find a way to turn the unlimited waste into water, compost, etc then we can have a healthier planet.

I admire the creativity of the inventor, but really, just what problem does this solve. The problem with plastic is that people seem to throw it anywhere they want to. This process really can't help with plastic that has been discarded, can it. If so, how will the little bacteria know what is garbage and what is still serving a useful propose.

If it is collected, then it should be recycled, not fermented. As well, I imagine this process emits CO2. If the plastic can't be recycled, it is probably just as good to bury it to sequester the C02. IF there is a use for it at some point, it can be dug up.

Like the previous poster mentioned, lets just not waste as much.

It could potentially solve the problem of the crap in the ocean - divers collect said crap and take it to the contained site where the organism is and voila - less crap in the ocean.

come to think of it, why aren't people removing crap from the ocean to be recycled (or at least no longer floating in the ocean) anyway?

While these biological solutions are great in concept, the shear amount of plastic bag waste produced in the world and the resources required to does this process makes application a non-starter.

There are a significant number of cost effective technologies to deal with plastics and other carbon non biodegradible (or difficult to biodegrade) materials. Fermentors that don't produce valuable products just generate waste and consume resources, which is the wrong way for the world to look. The future has to be waste to energy, not just waste processing.

Technologies such as gasification being the first that comes to mind, where you can actually turn plastic bags into electricity, ethanol, and hydrogen and have the whole process be net power positive.

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This is exceptional work for a school kid. However, if you burn the plastic in a waste power plant, you could still get some energy from it, and some oil/coal/natural gas is saved.

Scott Johnson says: "Ultimately, producing less waste is still the goal."

No, no, no. That's not the goal at all. Producing less waste leaves us with all the problems we currently have, it just extends the timeframe. What we want is a completely sustainable economy where the concept of waste has no meaning. An idea like this actually turns unpleasant and dangerous waste into harmless, even beneficial materials, which to me at least, is a huge improvement over just manufacturing fewer plastic bags.

I was so proud of Dan when I saw that he had won best in fair for his project at CWSF. His project was one of the rare innovations that not only a has practical application, but can resolve a world wide issue.

Or scott, for us to get rid of our current plastic surplus, left over from decades of laziness.

I've been saying this is the solution for years, but figured some other super-intelligent scientist must have already tried it and hadn't found the strains of bacteria yet. Who would have thought an 11th grader would pull it off first?

i dont see why this isint BIG and on the news???

I sure hope there are many more young adults like you .

GREAT JOB and WELL DONE! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I wouldn't 'spray' this bacteria... or encurage it to spread widely...

a creature with little copetition, in an enviroment with unlimited food, would spread. It's great to eat plastics in dumps, not so great when they are eating our medical equipment/cars/computers

we use plastics for everything now days, lets not make one of our most useful items a food for a micro-organism.

That said though, in a more controlled enviroment... hell yeah that's awsome.

Wow, these are the kind of news I live for! Way to go Daniel!
As Leslie pointed out, why isn't this HUGE news??

I'd love to know aaalll about it, and hope it is implemented, in a responsible manner, soon!

Why not just use paper bags?

Thank goodness for our semi-free market. If the government was completely in charge this solution would never have been found. Great job.

how about if the bacteria are embedded in the plastic while the are being manufactured. Obviously the bags would have a limited shelf life but then they would self-destruct over time wherever they are.

This is a great sounding idea! However I'm reminded that back in the '70s I read a book, which I've looked for since but not yet found, where someone came up with a self-decomposing plastic based on microbes. Unfortunately, the little buggers multiplied and before long, airplanes were falling out of the sky because the organisms were eating wire insulation and the like.

I suppose there could be the possibility of engineering a special plastic for use in throw-away applications that could be directly linked to microbes, but the thing about microbes is that they evolve just as any living organism does. How could you be sure that they wouldn't start eating other kinds of plastics sooner or later?

His solution may not be perfect but atleast the kid is thinking about stuff other than video games! He's in 11th grade, wait and see what he does after college! Mad props!!!!

Folks, the amount of petroleum used in plastics is minor. 90% of US oil consumption is used for one type of fuel or another. In other words, breaking down plastics into greenhouse gasses is insignificant. Replace petroleum with renewable energy sources, and I think the worry of decomposing plastic becomes moot.

This reminds me of the early crude-eating microbes. Unfortunately, when the oil was gone, the microbes found other things to eat.

This is an excellent idea! Congrats to the kid.
However, it would only exacerbate global warming. See, creating plastic from petroleum doesn't release the carbon in the petroleum. However, in this idea (as in all decomposing) the carbon contained in the plastic would be released into the air as CO2. While plastic bags are an environmental problem, they pale in comparison to global warming. Using this spray would produce colossal amounts of greenhouse gases. Decomposing waste isn't the answer: eliminating it (using cloth bags) is.

Great news! I wonder what happens to all the plasticizers in the bags. Do all the chemicals get into the soil and then into the food chain?

"the simplest solutions are usually the ones that work best" then why not avoid the use of plastic bags to begin with?

The major concern here should be understanding the processes behind the decomposition. Before this should ever be used to clean anything up, it should be known whether the plastic itself is the only thing eaten or if the plasticizers are as well. It's possible that the decomposition of plastic releases a horrid amount of synthetic chemicals into the environment.

I envision a modified tanker, tankers or seastanding structures eating away the Pacific Gyre, self sustained by the energy geneerated. Might be a good way to validate or justify the seastanders project.
Like the sin eaters of old, they would thrive out of our ecological failure.

Good job on the dude's part and I think folks should be open-minded and that all options for use of the technology be closely analyzed so the pros and cons can be weighed. Still, it's progress and from a youth that is interested in caring for the environment and is putting his talents to work on it. Kudo's to Daniel!!! :-)

I haven't had time to read a the comments yet but as fqr as my knowledge goes degradation of platic is not a godo thing. Plastic cannot bio degrade, it is a polymer and wil always remain a polymer. Now as it degrades, gets smaller then it will become air born, then we will breath it and get plastic coated lungs.

Whilst this experiment is applaudabe and scientifically awesome, please lets forget it ever happened. It will also go against the ways of people thinking plastic is not disposable. It's good that plastic hangs around for so long, it helps us understand that it is a very valuable resource and should be treated with respect and not disposability.

I honestly think this is a great idea but will bring woe and sorrow to us all once Coca-Cola get hold of it. Peak oil is one step closer now plastic s degradable.......

@ Bett: I think I know this book (or a similar one), it is called "mutation ..." and then a number.

this is awesome!! I was thinking this could be done and im glad to see that not just me is thinking about a natural way, other than burning it and releasing more chemicals into the environment. :-) Woot!

This sounds really cool, but as i'm reading the other comments, i begin to wonder what exactly is the end product of plastic degrading, and there should be major reaserch done before anyone starts trying to market a way to degrad plastic. I do agree that people themselves should stop throwing there trash around like no body else is living in this world.

RE: Tea Tree Oil uses: WHAT is an 'essential oil' ?? and WHAT is washing soda -- I thought Borax was a washing soda.

good idea, but as a plastic bag decomposes toxins are polluted into the soil, these toxins can destroy plant and animal's food webs. So if you spray these plastic eating things into the soil, it acts as a catalyst, but unfortunately that doesn't really mean that the toxins will stop going into the soil.

But great idea anyway!!

good idea, but as a plastic bag decomposes toxins are polluted into the soil, these toxins can destroy plant and animal's food webs. So if you spray these plastic eating things into the soil, it acts as a catalyst, but unfortunately that doesn't really mean that the toxins will stop going into the soil.

But great idea anyway!!

Nice job but not necessarily practical. This is not new information. We already know what can digest plastic. The trick is to figure out how to do it simply in the environment. The method of using fermentation on that scale is very expensive. There usually needs to be some type of monetary benefit to it. You take bioplastic bags to the recycling center and they recycle the bags to be used again (benefit). You break down bags then what do you do with the result that will make you money? People who would buy this mixture to use would need some financial benefit to using it.

No you can't just spray the microbes on landfills. The microbes need to breath. Landfills kill aerobic microbes. They do not allow air to get in and this prevents decomposition from occurring quickly and correctly. Therefore you can dig to the bottom of a landfill and find newspapers from the 50 and 60s in there that are still legible (has been done already).

good job!

And after that, good luck on all of those colleges that will undoubtedly be knocking at your door.