Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic
PhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this 16-year-old finds the answer.
Fri, Jun 12 2009 at 1:26 AM EST
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Photo: Samuel Mann/Flickr It's not your average science fair when the 16-year-old winner manages to solve a global waste crisis. But such was the case at last May's Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa, Ontario, where Daniel Burd, a high school student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, presented his research on microorganisms that can rapidly biodegrade plastic.
Daniel had a thought it seems even the most esteemed PhDs hadn't considered. Plastic, one of the most indestructible of manufactured materials, does in fact eventually decompose. It takes 1,000 years but decompose it does, which means there must be microorganisms out there to do the decomposing.
Editor's note: There are two high school students who have discovered plastic-consuming microorganisms. The first was Daniel Burd. The second was Tseng I-Ching (last month), a high school student in Taiwan.
Could those microorganisms be bred to do the job faster?
That was Daniel's question, and he put to the test with a very simple and clever process of immersing ground plastic in a yeast solution that encourages microbial growth, and then isolating the most productive organisms.The preliminary results were encouraging, so he kept at it, selecting out the most effective strains and interbreeding them. After several weeks of tweaking and optimizing temperatures Burd was achieved a 43 percent degradation of plastic in six weeks, an almost inconceivable accomplishment.
With 500 billion plastic bags manufactured each year and a Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that grows more expansive by the day, a low-cost and nontoxic method for degrading plastic is the stuff of environmentalists' dreams and, I would hazard a guess, a pretty good start-up company as well.
NOTE to the comment below: Yes there are certainly methods for decomposing plastic, but most are chemical in nature not organic, requiring high temperatures and chemical additives to cause the plasticizers to vaporize, for instance this patent on PVC extraction. There have been several successful bacteria-based solutions developed at the Department of Biotechnology in Tottori, Japan as well as the Department of Microbiology at the National University of Ireland, but both apply only to styrene compounds.
It goes without saying that these discoveries need to be tested to ensure, for instance, that the byproducts of organic decomposition are not carcinogenic (as in the case with mammalian metabolism of styrene and benzene). The processing of plastics by these methods would also have to be contained in highly controlled environments. So, no, we're not talking about a magic panacea or a plastic-free paradise, but the innovative application of microorganisms to break down our most troublesome waste products is nevertheless a major scientific breakthrough.
NOTE: One of our readers pointed out a very interesting study in 2004 at the University of Wisconsin that isolated a fungus capable of biodegrading phenol-formaldehyde polymers previously thought to be non-biodegradable. Phenol polymers are produced at an annual rate of 2.2 million metric tons per year in the United States for many industrial and commercial applications including durable plastics.
COMMENTS: This story has generated a flurry of feedback since it was posted on June 12, 2009. Here's a compilation of the best and brightest comments.
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Comments
Enter your name
11/15/2011 01:02 AM
it is biggest solution for our earth..........
kd
08/12/2011 04:39 AM
hoe to kill this sphigomaonas (plastic eating bacteria)..as they can not be degraded in any natural environment...
Jeef
07/22/2011 00:59 AM
And what are the waste products of these little wonders?
IndisclosedCitizen
07/09/2011 11:02 AM
.... does anyone smell Apocalypse?
j7t14r
07/10/2011 14:03 PM
The smell you perceive is the accumulating gargage, sludge, junk, smoke and fumes produced by 7 billion ambitious consumers who are too busy to be bothered with safe recycling and peaceful family planning education. Imagine a living planet, a biosphere afflicted with a raging parasite that devours and pollutes everything. You and I belong to that species and our fate is sealed UNLESS we agree to safely recycle 100% of all our waste products and peacefully reduce our population with family.... More
j7t14r
07/02/2011 18:01 PM
Even though almost everyone knows about the gigantic and growing garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, the production of various plastic containers is growing along with the growing human population, the instinct to grow overwhelming all good sense, which should inspire us to safely recycle 100% of all garbage, sludge and junk, but that would cost a lot of money and put millions of unemployed back to work, so the money wins, as usual.
Carrotman
06/27/2011 12:30 PM
I thought of doing this in 1942, but at that moment I realized it is similar to the compleat solvent... ...it will dissolve any container. Spill this plastic eater in the wrong place and it probably will replicate a thread of active creations and poof... ...there go the surroundings upon which you stand...poof ...poof ...poof
Jacob Griffith
06/17/2011 12:09 PM
If this microbe can turn the matter into something of a better state in which we can reuse it then this is useful, else it's a waste of earth's resources.
may's :)
06/16/2011 22:47 PM
we are about to conduct a research concerning the same problem but we don't know how to tell whether the plastics are decomposed? How will we know? what instrument shall we use?
please need help!
Chris
06/15/2011 08:14 AM
This article really bothers me in the sense that the first link on the page to "Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo" goes to a page that has NOTHING to do with the topic. Also there is no way this author knows what he is talking about "effective strains and interbreeding them"..... this is impossible. If you had to stumble to find an article that mentioned plastic eating bacteria then the truth is there is a reason that this work is not more popular in the media. My guess would be that this.... More
kentiopsis
06/14/2011 00:46 AM
The article says that the student selected the most prolific microbes and interbred them. This can be done only with organisms that reproduce sexually. Microbes reproduce asexually, by division.
Dr. Zhivago
08/20/2011 22:44 PM
Bacteria can transfer genetic information to each other through what is called horizontal gene transfer. This is done by transformation, transduction, and conjugation.
Harry
05/15/2011 02:16 AM
It's been nearly ten years when I first heard about similar news from finnish scientists. What happened to them and their achievement???
dollabillwill
05/09/2011 23:03 PM
Holy crap keep Joan Rivers away from that ****...
Pompi Sarma
03/22/2011 03:34 AM
it is a great discovery 4 two school children..........bdw plz anyone tell me what are the microbes responsible 4 this??
Plastic4fuel
03/06/2011 06:51 AM
Why bury or destroy plastic waste when it can be turned back into fuel(diesel and gasoline)Having a low cost fuel is what we need.This is the answer to it.Recycle plastic waste into fuel.
Xoni
05/10/2011 20:38 PM
making plastic into fuel takes either an enormous amount of energy of an extremely long time (millions of years)
sorry but that probably won't work
Dr.A.Jagadeesh
02/27/2011 01:50 AM
Excellent article.
Here is history of Nylon – eating bacteria and subsequent research which shows the evolution of plastics eating bacteria.
Nylon-eating bacteria are a strain of Flavobacterium that is capable of digesting certain byproducts of nylon 6 manufacture. This strain of Flavobacterium, Sp. K172, became popularly known as nylon-eating bacteria, and the enzymes used to digest the man-made molecules became collectively known as nylonase.
Discovery
In 1975 a team of.... More
HOSSAM ELANZEERY
02/20/2011 17:15 PM
I appreciate the efforts to overcome such a huge problem, I did a lot of research concerning this point and I managed to reach a very effective method by inventing a type of plastic polymers called: "Greenphylic" which is water-soluble. It just needs water to degrade completely within couple of minutes. Moreover, it is a degradable substance, not a biodegradable one that has an effect on the environment. I believe it is an environmental friendly substance and can participate in finding a.... More
Patrick
05/05/2011 08:58 AM
One of the biggest uses of plastic is plastic bags. So let's say it's a rainy day and you're walking from the grocery store to your car. If you had used water-soluble plastic bags, they could very well dissolve before you made it to the car. I know this is a very specific instance, but there are certainly other situations similar to this.
Dave M.
01/29/2011 22:22 PM
A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilization was the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in 1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but before we start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' we had better think of the consequences.
Doomwatch
02/04/2011 15:48 PM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0564476/
Trivia
In 1971 authors Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis stripped the plot of all Doomwatch links and reworked it into a novel, "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater". See more »
Dave M.
01/29/2011 22:22 PM
A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilization was the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in 1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but before we start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' we had better think of the consequences.
GCM
01/19/2011 21:41 PM
What if these organisms get loose? Could they begin to eat underground plumbing?
lisalt
01/03/2011 02:35 AM
It can not happen in the US because the public schools do not focus in Science. It is always considered a minor subject.
Anonymous
02/24/2011 20:29 PM
The reason the US has fallen so far behind in science is because a huge proportion of the population keeps telling their kids that it's all bs. The big bang theory, evolution, climate change, etc. It's a shame.
Guest
06/14/2011 10:21 AM
I would have thought it would have been a better idea to just recycle the plastics, after all the oil won't last forever and plastic is an incredible material. Just think how much we rely on it. To destroy it forever may be shortsighted.
It also might be a good plan to check that these organisms aren't breaking down the plastics into carbon dioxide.
random person..
01/13/2011 19:05 PM
Little reminder, matter cannot be destroyed or created... what happens with the old plastic, that idk
arbusco
01/01/2011 22:40 PM
this is the sorta thing that 30 years ago, we would have been doing. US kids would have been doing this, just like years ago during the space race we had kids making rockets.
the fact that this is a canadian student and a student from taiwan is a direct reflection on how far the US school system has sunk.
Guest
06/14/2011 10:22 AM
"the fact that this is a Canadian student and a student from Taiwan is a direct reflection on how far the US school system has sunk"
Either you are trying to make a smug remark about Canadian and Taiwanese intelligence...
Or you're saying the evidence for a poorly performing public school system is that innovations in science are coming from north of the border and overseas, now, not from home?
Either way, the US was never the only source of innovation. Scientific.... More
sunitha reddy
12/29/2010 04:47 AM
degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to my knowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely is that really effortable
sunitha reddy
12/29/2010 04:46 AM
degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to my knowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely is that really effortable
Guest
06/14/2011 10:25 AM
Good , now youth are becomig more and more intelligent with their mind , they are doing the work of like scientists and they will get their reward too, when i was kid , i didn't invent anything but i always with my parents and helping them in any mode.keep going on..
Guest
06/14/2011 10:26 AM
my question is, why the hell did it take some high school kid to discover this? after all these years? i can't wait to see how this poor kid and his discovery gets manipulated by the money powers in the future....lol
Mr.Moonlight
01/07/2011 00:00 AM
Probably they'll just name the discovery with the kid's name, and expect he'll be happy with it.
Zack
12/22/2010 00:25 AM
When did we stop recycling?
/J-man
01/11/2011 15:09 PM
A lot of US states don't bother recycling, they just throw it out and let it build up.
Simon Sharman
12/10/2010 07:42 AM
I felt so strongly about your item I kicked off my new web series, EYESpy with this as the lead. Great post and thanks for sharing with the world. You can view EYESpy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQM33k4x0A
sharonschaffhauser
12/07/2010 22:16 PM
Is it time to rethink our stance on all the useless items we produce on this planet. Plastic is a petroleum based product and will become more expensive as gas prices rise. Cloth bags, preferably hemp, would last you your lifetime. So what's the point.?
We do'nt have to invent francken microbes to eat our plastic garbage.
marking
01/03/2011 18:08 PM
You are anti-plastic, yet..... what do you think your computer is composed of???
