Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag in Three Months

16-year-old Daniel Burd figured out something many others had not. How to make a plastic bag decompose in a short period of time. Daniel entered his high school science fair in Waterloo, Ontario with the goal of reducing the time period it takes for a plastic bag to decompose. When left on it's own, this process can take plastic thousands of years. He figured out how to make this happen in three months. Impressive.

"Burd mixed landfill dirt with yeast and tap water, then added ground plastic and let it stew. The plastic indeed decomposed more quickly than it would in nature; after experimenting with different temperatures and configurations, Burd isolated the microbial munchers. One came from the bacterial genus Pseudomonas, and the other from the genus Sphingomonas.

Burd says this should be easy on an industrial scale: all that’s needed is a fermenter, a growth medium and plastic, and the bacteria themselves provide most of the energy by producing heat as they eat.
The only waste is water and a bit of carbon dioxide."

via Wired

Thanks Leboski Pod Cast