Eye Current

From a 1000 Years to 3 Months...

Currently it takes at least 1000 years if not longer for the PE (Polyethylene or for you chemists out there C2H4) to breakdown. PE has been used for consumer applications since the 1930's however, there is one serious problem: We have trillions of these bags all over the earth that will not decompose in our lifetime. But fear not the plastic shopping bag any longer. The Record, a Canadian newspaper, has reported that Daniel Burd, an 11th grade student, has developed a way to decompose PE 4000 times faster. He came up with this as way to get rid of all the plastic bags that he encountered while doing his daily chores. To accomplish this Burd exposed the PE to "concentration of plastic-eating microbes". After isolating the bacteria that degraded the most plastic, he tweaked his solution and ran his test again. After 6 weeks in the solution the PE "was visibly clearer and more brittle", it was hypothesized that another 6 weeks and the PE would have ceased to exist. "Why do I care about a high school science fair project?", you ask. Well I'll tell you. Not only is this solution feasible on a large scale but it could possibly be sold in DIY kits; comparable to a DIY compost heap. It would be a much nobler way to get rid of those plastic bags than releasing them into the environment to choke some birds and fish. Another reason that you should care is that it offers a way to get rid of the pollution that already exists. It wouldn't be long before all the Green people in the world would start a movement to collect and destroy the plastic bags already in the environment. Oh and did I mention it's cheap and doesn't create hardly any waste. As it is now, in it's developmental stage, "each microbe produces only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide". What that means is that for every 100 microbes that are use to break down the bags in this way, the carbon dioxide created would only be equal to that of a single microbe. This is pretty insignificant considering all of PE that would be taken out of the
pollution loop. Also, costs are relatively low: a bucket, some of the bacterial solution, and some time. That's all it takes to rid the world of all these annoying plastic bags. However, until this process reaches the consumer market I recommend that everyone take a look at reusable bags.

Labels: bags, environment, green, plastic

posted by RawburtG. @ 8:24 AM