Here's an impressive science fair project: 16-year-old Waterloo, Ontario high school junior Daniel Burd wanted to try to figure out if there was a way to get plastic bags to decompose faster. As it stands, it takes thousands of years for the wasteful objects to disintegrate. But by using bacteria, he figured out how to make it happen in a mere three months.
After some trial and error experiments, he figured out that by mixing landfill dirt, yeast, tap water, and ground plastic and letting it sit, the plastic decomposed at a much higher rate than normal. It's something that can be expanded to large-scale use as well, with it being relatively energy efficient and releasing only water and a small amount of carbon dioxide in the process. Sure beats my science fair project.
The Record, via Wired Science
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By momskates at 11:22 AM ON 05/28/08
"Out of the minds of babes"......genius
Scientists couldn't figure it out?
By Biomom at 12:39 PM ON 05/28/08
How fantastic is this? But I have some questions. Since yeast is a fungus and not a bacteria, what bacteria is being used? Was it engineered like the bacteria used to "eat" MTBE in gasoline? Or is it bacteria found in the landfill dirt?
By bubba at 2:00 PM ON 05/28/08
yeast is a bacteria biomom. Read up on it before you post stupidly.
By Chaz at 2:04 PM ON 05/28/08
Cool, but releasing CO2 is not good. Leaving the bags in the ground is a great way to keep Carbon sequestered. We get it from the oil undeerground ground, and to the ground it should return. Better to reuse or repurpose. Still, big kudos for coming up with the formula. Let's reaply it for toxic waste.
By Nigel at 7:29 PM ON 05/28/08
Dear Chaz,
Please stop releasing CO2. As you pointed out, it's not good. And you've been releasing gobs and gobs of it for quite a while now. Don't you think enough is enough? Please stop.
Or, you could put all your waste CO2 in a plastic bag and bury it, that would be WAYYYY better. Thanks.
By spartcus3 at 8:22 PM ON 05/28/08
is he going to get any $$ money for his idia
By spartcus3 at 8:24 PM ON 05/28/08
is he going to get any $$ money for his idia
By drjohn at 12:05 AM ON 05/29/08
Yeast are a group of unicellular fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages.
Seriously, is using Google that hard?
By CHAZ at 4:07 AM ON 05/29/08
Sorry, I'm pretty stuipid.
By Lupus at 4:37 AM ON 05/29/08
I thought they discovered this already a few years back...
By Henry at 10:26 AM ON 05/29/08
Does it work with the plastic bags being completely buried in the landfill with no sunlight or air getting to them? If it does then way to go.
By bedlamite23 at 11:28 AM ON 05/29/08
"and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide -- each microbe produces only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide"
By Iridium at 12:50 PM ON 05/29/08
It would be neat if they could do large scale factories to decompose the plastics then in turn run a green house on the excess CO2 and H20...
By Dragonflight at 2:21 PM ON 05/29/08
(Iridium)... There's a thought... We keep harping about how dangerous greenhouse gases are, but if the CO2 was purified and bottled, it could be used to improve performance in sealed-system hydroponics facilities. It would even be profitable to run then, as it would allow the company running the waste disposal plant to have a saleable product at the end of it all. (And although we either may love or hate it, but there has to be money in it somewhere for people to invest in it.)
By blkhllr at 11:01 PM ON 05/29/08
Bubba, you're the idiot. Yeast is classified in the kingdom Fungi.
By chrismm42 at 1:53 AM ON 06/01/08
Seriously people. Look beyond the fact that this process emits miniscule amounts of CO2. In the long run, what's better? CO2 can be cut in other places, and it is. Think about the environmental impact of being able to recycle plastic bags, and possibly other similar items.
What's really great about this process, is that it might be possible on a large scale. This is certainly a breakthrough which I hope will be pursued.
By betchie at 2:38 AM ON 10/12/08
hi! I would just like to ask if this is just a process or there is a machine for this "process"? thank you!
By miska at 9:32 PM ON 10/29/08
verry interresting does that mean that people could make giant contianers and do that on a bigger scale? i'm doing this for a school project very clever