Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months. The Waterloo, Ontario high school junior figured that something must make plastic degrade, even if it does take millennia, and that something was probably bacteria. (Hey, at between one-half and 90 percent of Earth’s biomass, bacteria’s a pretty safe bet for any biological mystery.) The Record reports that 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. (OP:optimisto/RB:tnkcmndr)
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Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months.

The Waterloo, Ontario high school junior figured that something must make plastic degrade, even if it does take millennia, and that something was probably bacteria.

(Hey, at between one-half and 90 percent of Earth’s biomass, bacteria’s a pretty safe bet for any biological mystery.)

The Record reports that 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.

(OP:optimisto/RB:tnkcmndr)

Source: Wired

53 Notes/ Hide

  1. lexaplex reblogged this from unproductive
  2. aintmagicgrand reblogged this from theslyestfox
  3. joshuatuscan reblogged this from dalasverdugo and added:
    If this is true, which it sure seems to be, then why in the hell have I not seen it on the news or watched a news...
  4. pirata-bronx reblogged this from dalasverdugo and added:
    very cool but Pseudo can be a biiiiitch if you don’t play nice with it.
  5. sansumbrella reblogged this from unproductive
  6. 23clementines reblogged this from theslyestfox
  7. irisl reblogged this from dalasverdugo and added:
    So what are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of these inane little suckers!
  8. theworldpulse reblogged this from dalasverdugo
  9. unproductive reblogged this from flyonair
  10. flyonair reblogged this from agsystems
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  14. rispostesenzadomanda reblogged this from shuly and added:
    A me, a occhio, sembra una cosa seria. Dopotutto è il principio su cui si basa la bonifica della contaminazione da...
  15. shuly reblogged this from rispostesenzadomanda and added:
    E’ una grillata o è seria?
  16. theslyestfox reblogged this from tank-commander and added:
    Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in...
  17. tank-commander reblogged this from dalasverdugo
  18. treesinthesea reblogged this from skeksis and added:
    This is amazing.
  19. skeksis reblogged this from madwhit and added:
    O_O This is so cool
  20. forevermilhouse reblogged this from dalasverdugo
  21. madwhit reblogged this from dalasverdugo
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