The world is covered in plastic. Plastic bags, that is.
Landfills, oceans and everything in between are littered with them. Sea turtles, like our beloved Leatherback, mistaken plastic bags for jellyfish and choke on them. India’s venerated cows are dying at alarming rates from ingesting pounds of plastic bag garbage. That’s where Daniel Burd comes in.
As a school science project, Burd (age 16) figured out how to make plastic decompose in just 3 months. Positively brilliant!
With the knowledge that plastic does eventually – 1,000 years or so – degrade, he successfully set out to isolate the rare microorganisms that break it down. And according to Burd, industrial application should be easy. Talk about changing the world - one grocery bag and a million bacteria at a time.
Via Treehugger.
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