The Bag-Monster’s Nemesis

We all saw him a couple weeks ago—that terrifying, ugly monster. You know who I’m talking about: The Bag Monster.

Finally, the Bag-Monster has met his match, but not in the hero anyone suspected. Scientists have been working on projects to rid us of the seemly insurmountable problem of plastic bag litter and waste: but a high-school pipsqueak beat them to it.

Danial Burd, a Canadian high-school junior, has found a way to make plastic bags degrade in as little as three months. The finding wasn’t just good for him—landing him a first-prize trophy in the Canadian-wide science fair—but a chance for us to be relieved from a major environmental issue.

Burd recognized that plastic does eventually degrade on its own, as it is slowly eaten by microorganisms. He set out to recognize what these microorganisms were—and their optimal living conditions—hoping that this would speed the degradation process.

And it did. By concocting a mixture of household materials such as yeast and tap water, Burd found quantifiable results; the plastic exposed to the bacteria was seventeen percent lighter than the control after a month and a half. He was able to identify Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas as the hungry little plastic munchers. At warm temperatures and the bacteria’s optimal conditions, the little buggers had consumed almost half the exposed plastic sample in six weeks.

At last, the Bag-Monster has met its nemesis.