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Boy discovers microbe that eats plasticPhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this16-year-old finds the answer.

Photo: Samuel Mann/Flickr

It's not your average science fair when the 16-year-old winner manages to solve aglobal waste crisis. But such was the case at last May's Canada-Wide Science Fair inOttawa, Ontario, where Daniel Burd, a high school student at Waterloo CollegiateInstitute, presented his research on microorganisms that can rapidly biodegradeplastic. 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 eventuallydecompose. It takes 1,000 years but decompose it does, which means there must bemicroorganisms 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 TsengI-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 tothe test with a very simple and cleverprocess of immersing ground plastic in ayeast solution that encourages microbialgrowth, and then isolating the mostproductive organisms. The preliminary results were encouraging,so he kept at it, selecting out the mosteffective strains and interbreeding them.After several weeks of tweaking andoptimizing temperatures Burd was achieveda 43 percent degradation of plastic in six

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Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic | MNN - Mother Nature Network http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/boy-discove...

1 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

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Related Topics: Composting, Environmental Science, Plastics, Waste

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Ahaa, its nice conversation about this post at this place at thiswebpage, I have read all that, so at this time me also commentinghere.

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Everyone needs to help create a system to safely recycle 100% of allhuman-generated waste materials, while there is still time, before thebiosphere collapses under the enormous and growing tons of ourgarbage, sludge, junk, chemicals, smoke and fumes.

weeks, an almost inconceivable accomplishment. With 500 billion plastic bags manufactured each year and a Pacific Ocean Garbage Patchthat grows more expansive by the day, a low-cost and nontoxic method for degradingplastic is the stuff of environmentalists' dreams and, I would hazard a guess, a prettygood 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 chemicaladditives to cause the plasticizers to vaporize, for instance this patent on PVCextraction. There have been several successful bacteria-based solutions developed atthe Department of Biotechnology in Tottori, Japan as well as the Department ofMicrobiology at the National University of Ireland, but both apply only to styrenecompounds. 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 withmammalian metabolism of styrene and benzene). The processing of plastics by thesemethods 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 innovativeapplication of microorganisms to break down our most troublesome waste products isnevertheless a major scientific breakthrough. NOTE: One of our readers pointed out a very interesting study in 2004 at the Universityof Wisconsin that isolated a fungus capable of biodegrading phenol-formaldehydepolymers previously thought to be non-biodegradable. Phenol polymers are producedat an annual rate of 2.2 million metric tons per year in the United States for manyindustrial and commercial applications including durable plastics. COMMENTS: This story has generated a flurry of feedback since it was posted on June12, 2009. Here's a compilation of the best and brightest comments. Don't do RSS? Follow all Karl Burkart posts and tweets @greendig or on Facebook.

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2 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

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wow.....great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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it is biggest solution for our earth..........

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nice article.

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hoe to kill this sphigomaonas (plastic eating bacteria)..as they can notbe degraded in any natural environment...

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And what are the waste products of these little wonders?

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You can think of a better question than that, can't you?

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you didnt

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.... does anyone smell Apocalypse?

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The smell you perceive is the accumulating gargage, sludge, junk,smoke and fumes produced by 7 billion ambitious consumers whoare too busy to be bothered with safe recycling and peacefulfamily planning education. Imagine a living planet, a biosphereafflicted with a raging parasite that devours and polluteseverything. You and I belong to that species and our fate is sealedUNLESS we agree to safely recycle 100% of all our waste productsand peacefully reduce our population with family.... More

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mahesh 02/09/2012 05:14 AM

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prettyvixious 10/24/2011 09:12 AM

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Jeef 07/22/2011 00:59 AM

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j7t14r 07/22/2011 23:36 PM

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j7t14r 07/10/2011 14:03 PM

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3 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

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Even though almost everyone knows about the gigantic and growinggarbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, the production of various plasticcontainers is growing along with the growing human population, theinstinct to grow overwhelming all good sense, which should inspire usto safely recycle 100% of all garbage, sludge and junk, but that wouldcost a lot of money and put millions of unemployed back to work, sothe money wins, as usual.

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I thought of doing this in 1942, but at that moment I realized it issimilar to the compleat solvent... ...it will dissolve any container. Spillthis plastic eater in the wrong place and it probably will replicate athread of active creations and poof... ...there go the surroundingsupon which you stand...poof ...poof ...poof

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If this microbe can turn the matter into something of a better state inwhich we can reuse it then this is useful, else it's a waste of earth'sresources.

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we are about to conduct a research concerning the same problem butwe don't know how to tell whether the plastics are decomposed? Howwill we know? what instrument shall we use?

please need help!

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This article really bothers me in the sense that the first link on thepage to "Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo" goes to a page that hasNOTHING to do with the topic. Also there is no way this author knowswhat he is talking about "effective strains and interbreeding them".....this is impossible. If you had to stumble to find an article thatmentioned plastic eating bacteria then the truth is there is a reasonthat this work is not more popular in the media. My guess would bethat this.... More

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The article says that the student selected the most prolific microbesand interbred them. This can be done only with organisms thatreproduce sexually. Microbes reproduce asexually, by division.

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Bacteria can transfer genetic information to each other throughwhat is called horizontal gene transfer. This is done bytransformation, transduction, and conjugation.

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j7t14r 07/02/2011 18:01 PM

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Carrotman 06/27/2011 12:30 PM

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Jacob Griffith 06/17/2011 12:09 PM

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may's :) 06/16/2011 22:47 PM

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4 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

It's been nearly ten years when I first heard about similar news fromfinnish scientists. What happened to them and their achievement???

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Holy crap keep Joan Rivers away from that ****...

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it is a great discovery 4 two school children..........bdw plz anyone tellme what are the microbes responsible 4 this??

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Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas

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Why bury or destroy plastic waste when it can be turned back intofuel(diesel and gasoline)Having a low cost fuel is what we need.This isthe answer to it.Recycle plastic waste into fuel.

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making plastic into fuel takes either an enormous amount ofenergy of an extremely long time (millions of years)sorry but that probably won't work

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Excellent article.Here is history of Nylon – eating bacteria and subsequent researchwhich shows the evolution of plastics eating bacteria.Nylon-eating bacteria are a strain of Flavobacterium that is capable ofdigesting certain byproducts of nylon 6 manufacture. This strain ofFlavobacterium, Sp. K172, became popularly known as nylon-eatingbacteria, and the enzymes used to digest the man-made moleculesbecame collectively known as nylonase.DiscoveryIn 1975 a team of.... More

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I appreciate the efforts to overcome such a huge problem, I did a lotof research concerning this point and I managed to reach a veryeffective method by inventing a type of plastic polymers called:"Greenphylic" which is water-soluble. It just needs water to degradecompletely within couple of minutes. Moreover, it is a degradablesubstance, not a biodegradable one that has an effect on theenvironment. I believe it is an environmental friendly substance andcan participate in finding a.... More

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dollabillwill 05/09/2011 23:03 PM

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5 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

One of the biggest uses of plastic is plastic bags. So let's say it's arainy day and you're walking from the grocery store to your car. Ifyou had used water-soluble plastic bags, they could very welldissolve before you made it to the car. I know this is a veryspecific instance, but there are certainly other situations similar tothis.

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plastic bags are recyclable I know my foster mother use tomake trow rugs out of the plastic bags that came along withalmost everything we bought at the supermarket i.e., plasticbread bags.

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A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilizationwas the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but beforewe start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' wehad better think of the consequences.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0564476/TriviaIn 1971 authors Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis stripped the plot of allDoomwatch links and reworked it into a novel, "Mutant 59: ThePlastic Eater". See more »

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A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilizationwas the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but beforewe start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' wehad better think of the consequences.

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What if these organisms get loose? Could they begin to eatunderground plumbing?

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What a great achievement . . . now to see it implemented worldwide.

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It can not happen in the US because the public schools do not focus inScience. It is always considered a minor subject.

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Patrick 05/05/2011 08:58 AM

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6 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

The reason the US has fallen so far behind in science is because ahuge proportion of the population keeps telling their kids that it'sall bs. The big bang theory, evolution, climate change, etc. It's ashame.

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I would have thought it would have been a better idea to just recyclethe plastics, after all the oil won't last forever and plastic is anincredible material. Just think how much we rely on it. To destroy itforever may be shortsighted.It also might be a good plan to check that these organisms aren'tbreaking down the plastics into carbon dioxide.

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Little reminder, matter cannot be destroyed or created... whathappens with the old plastic, that idk

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Matter is destroyed and created all the time. Have you everhad a fire? Remember Hiroshima? Energy can not be destroyedor created. Matter is made of energy. E=MC2.

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really? ...are you being serious right now?

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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 thespace race we had kids making rockets.

the fact that this is a canadian student and a student from taiwan is adirect reflection on how far the US school system has sunk.

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"the fact that this is a Canadian student and a student from Taiwanis a direct reflection on how far the US school system has sunk"

Either you are trying to make a smug remark about Canadian andTaiwanese intelligence...

Or you're saying the evidence for a poorly performing publicschool system is that innovations in science are coming from northof the border and overseas, now, not from home?

Either way, the US was never the only source of innovation.Scientific.... More

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I don't believe that the was being smug, i feel that hiscomments on the failing United States education system are in

Anonymous 02/24/2011 20:29 PM

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7 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

fact, correct. there isn't true teaching in the ussa, and hasn'tbeen in decades.

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degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to myknowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely isthat really effortable

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degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to myknowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely isthat really effortable

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This article is proof that is possible and low cost, a kid did it

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Good , now youth are becomig more and more intelligent with theirmind , they are doing the work of like scientists and they will get theirreward too, when i was kid , i didn't invent anything but i always withmy parents and helping them in any mode.keep going on..

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my question is, why the hell did it take some high school kid todiscover this? after all these years? i can't wait to see how this poorkid and his discovery gets manipulated by the money powers in thefuture....lol

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Probably they'll just name the discovery with the kid's name, andexpect he'll be happy with it.

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When did we stop recycling?

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A lot of US states don't bother recycling, they just throw it out andlet it build up.

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10 of 10 5/20/2012 4:01 PM

boy discovers microbe that eats plastic _ mnn - mother nature network

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