Science Fair: 16 Year Old Degrades Plastic

A 16 year old kid named Daniel Burd in Ontario set out to create a science project for the Canada-wide Science Fair.  He wondered - if plastic bags eventually do degrade after 1,000 years - what makes them eventually degrade?  If we can figure that out, we can probably make them degrade faster - short of using plasma gassification. 

Turns out that Daniel is wise beyond his years and is $30,000 richer for it.  He tried to isolate which microbes actually degrade the plastic.  After a lot of experimentation and weighing, etc, he figures that he can degrade a bag in as little as 90 days. 

See - the children ARE our future :-) 

I encourage you to read the entire article at the link below.

Source: The Blue Marble, The Record

PS - Special thanks to Mr Doyle for the reference