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JaComet
Old Hand

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Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
#8454034 - 05/28/08 05:48 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Home science and a fresh mind does it again. There is still hope for this world. ------------------------------
WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
http://news.therecord.com/article/354044
May 22, 2008 Karen Kawawada RECORD STAFF
WATERLOO
Getting ordinary plastic bags to rot away like banana peels would be an environmental dream come true.
After all, we produce 500 billion a year worldwide and they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. They take up space in landfills, litter our streets and parks, pollute the oceans and kill the animals that eat them.
Now a Waterloo teenager has found a way to make plastic bags degrade faster -- in three months, he figures.
Daniel Burd's project won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa. He came back with a long list of awards, including a $10,000 prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and recognition that he has found a practical way to help the environment.
Daniel, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, got the idea for his project from everyday life.
"Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me," he said. "One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags."
The answer: not much. So he decided to do something himself.
He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic -- not an easy task because they don't exist in high numbers in nature.
First, he ground plastic bags into a powder. Next, he used ordinary household chemicals, yeast and tap water to create a solution that would encourage microbe growth. To that, he added the plastic powder and dirt. Then the solution sat in a shaker at 30 degrees.
After three months of upping the concentration of plastic-eating microbes, Burd filtered out the remaining plastic powder and put his bacterial culture into three flasks with strips of plastic cut from grocery bags. As a control, he also added plastic to flasks containing boiled and therefore dead bacterial culture.
Six weeks later, he weighed the strips of plastic. The control strips were the same. But the ones that had been in the live bacterial culture weighed an average of 17 per cent less.
That wasn't good enough for Burd. To identify the bacteria in his culture, he let them grow on agar plates and found he had four types of microbes. He tested those on more plastic strips and found only the second was capable of significant plastic degradation.
Next, Burd tried mixing his most effective strain with the others. He found strains one and two together produced a 32 per cent weight loss in his plastic strips. His theory is strain one helps strain two reproduce.
Tests to identify the strains found strain two was Sphingomonas bacteria and the helper was Pseudomonas.
A researcher in Ireland has found Pseudomonas is capable of degrading polystyrene, but as far as Burd and his teacher Mark Menhennet know -- and they've looked -- Burd's research on polyethelene plastic bags is a first.
Next, Burd tested his strains' effectiveness at different temperatures, concentrations and with the addition of sodium acetate as a ready source of carbon to help bacteria grow.
At 37 degrees and optimal bacterial concentration, with a bit of sodium acetate thrown in, Burd achieved 43 per cent degradation within six weeks.
The plastic he fished out then was visibly clearer and more brittle, and Burd guesses after six more weeks, it would be gone. He hasn't tried that yet.
To see if his process would work on a larger scale, he tried it with five or six whole bags in a bucket with the bacterial culture. That worked too.
Industrial application should be easy, said Burd. "All you need is a fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags."
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide -- each microbe produces only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide, said Burd.
"This is a huge, huge step forward . . . We're using nature to solve a man-made problem."
Burd would like to take his project further and see it be used. He plans to study science at university, but in the meantime he's busy with things such as student council, sports and music.
"Dan is definitely a talented student all around and is poised to be a leading scientist in our community," said Menhennet, who led the school's science fair team but says he only helped Burd with paperwork.
Other local students also did well at the national science fair.
Devin Howard of St. John's Kilmarnock School won a gold medal in life science and several scholarships.
Mackenzie Carter of St. John's Kilmarnock won bronze medals in the automotive and engineering categories.
Engineers Without Borders awarded Jeff Graansma of Forest Heights Collegiate a free trip to their national conference in January.
Zach Elgood of Courtland Avenue Public School got honourable mention in earth and environmental science.
kkawawada@therecord.com
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AnarchoTrip
Young Blood



Registered: 03/26/07
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: JaComet]
#8454044 - 05/28/08 05:57 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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-------------------- YIPPIE!
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creekfreek
Certified phunologist



Registered: 01/26/08
Posts: 4,818
Loc: Right about here
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: AnarchoTrip]
#8454119 - 05/28/08 06:44 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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If he were a member here, I would give him 5 shrooms for sure.
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wisp

Registered: 04/13/08
Posts: 5,304
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: creekfreek]
#8454354 - 05/28/08 08:20 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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That is one intelligent 16 year old.
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Stein
Stranger


Registered: 07/02/03
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: JaComet]
#8454365 - 05/28/08 08:26 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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What's the a by-product from this process?
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Stein]
#8455131 - 05/28/08 11:56 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Stein said: What's the a by-product from this process?
Quote:
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide -- each microbe produces only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide, said Burd.[/quote[
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Acyl
cyanidepoisoning


Registered: 12/13/05
Posts: 4,472
Loc: N.W.T.
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: JaComet]
#8455782 - 05/28/08 03:30 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Wow, smart kid!
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Dude96
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Acyl]
#8455936 - 05/28/08 04:27 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Canadians ftw
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sleepy
zZzZzZzZz


Registered: 01/17/05
Posts: 3,888
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Stein]
#8456590 - 05/28/08 06:29 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Stein said: What's the a by-product from this process?
we think alike. what if its toxic right?
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....



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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: JaComet]
#8456907 - 05/28/08 07:37 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Impressive wingspan....!
>^;;^<
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Dude96]
#8458510 - 05/29/08 03:44 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> Canadians ftw 
At one time I would have agreed with you, but Canada is turning into a little US bitch when it comes to drug policy. Welcome to the new world order. Now, bend over and take it like all the other little US bitches...
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Seuss]
#8458616 - 05/29/08 05:30 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: > Canadians ftw 
At one time I would have agreed with you, but Canada is turning into a little US bitch when it comes to drug policy. Welcome to the new world order. Now, bend over and take it like all the other little US bitches...
I agree the pressures the US has put on them w/ things like pot policy are pretty terrible, but they are a democracy, and I doubt the people are opposed to the policy, though maybe I'm wrong. People are pretty uninformed, so its hard to know whether they're for or against something from a poll. For example, I read a poll in my state whether "you supported decriminalizing marijuana possession" and "whether you supported removing jail penalties for marijuana possession and leaving fines" and a majority supported removing jail penalties but not decriminalizing. That right there should illustrate the insanity of some public opinion, how could they vote for one and not the other? You can't even get probation or house arrest if there's no jail term possible, so they're literally the same thing.
But Canada IS a democracy. If the people really gave a shit the government would have to follow. But they don't, and thus the influence is not met w/ sufficient resistance, or they're mostly the kinda folks who vote in the above-mentioned poll and don't know what the hell they're voting for.
People have to take responsiblity for their government's actions. If you don't know enough about the candidates don't vote, if you don't know anything about the issue, don't voice an opinion in a poll, et cet.
Canada is responsible for its own mess, whether or not they'd be their indepndant of US actions, which lately it seems like they would.
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RuNE
bomberman


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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Seuss]
#8458864 - 05/29/08 08:31 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Topic 1: That's really cool. From what I've read, Canada is already one of the top 'green' developed countries. All the major grocery stores around here have been heavily pushing the PC green bag for a while now. Attacking the plastic bag problem from a 2nd angle can only mean good things. But I also wonder what the true byproducts are in the process. Could it really only be H2O and some Carbon dioxide?
Topic 2: I'm 50/50 on this. In once instance, I see signs of what you're saying Seuss, but then a month later we have a 4/20 march and noone thinks anything of it.
Quote:
But Canada IS a democracy. If the people really gave a shit the government would have to follow. But they don't, and thus the influence is not met w/ sufficient resistance, or they're mostly the kinda folks who vote in the above-mentioned poll and don't know what the hell they're voting for.
That last line makes it sound like Canadians are idiots. For most people who don't fully understand the difference between the 2 choices, it's almost a trick question....which anyone in ANY country could fall for. Anyway, I'd have to say most people here do give a shit what's happening in our government. You have to calculate in the fact that the previous generation grew up in an environment where the laws were just as lax, and they understand that a little pot in highschool is not going to fuck you up for life. If anything, I'd say the canadian government is more worried about the more hardcore drugs that are either new, or 'serious' like crack, meth, heroin and sadly MDMA. The previous generation is not really open to E, considering the lack of experience with it. Whatever happens, I doubt the laws on pot are going to get any more harsh.
If the above comes off like a badly spelled ramble, I just woke up about 5 mins ago. So I'm going to use that as a cheap excuse.
-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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Dude96
Stranger


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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: RuNE]
#8459911 - 05/29/08 02:38 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'm pretty happy to be Canadian and our government is generally pretty good (on a wide spectrum)
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Maverick
Lover of Earwigs!




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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Dude96]
#8461394 - 05/29/08 08:27 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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"The vast majority of plastics are composed of polymers of carbon and hydrogen alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or sulfur in the backbone."
I'd imagine there are other products as well, so what are they, and are they more hazardous than stable plastic? Molecular structure of plastic contain infinite chains of repeat units from monomers. Perhaps the bacteria is only attacking and using the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms, as the test didn't show the completed work of the bacteria. Perhaps there will be something left over.
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Acyl
cyanidepoisoning


Registered: 12/13/05
Posts: 4,472
Loc: N.W.T.
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Maverick]
#8462004 - 05/29/08 10:45 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Plastic grocery bags usually are made of polyethylene.
That just makes the whole discovery even more remarkable.. What the hell do they do with it? Do they contain "endo-oxidases" that can attack saturated carbon chains ? What other byproducts are there??
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Acyl]
#8462755 - 05/30/08 06:15 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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they probably just metabolise it like we do fats. We just can't do pure hydrocarbons cuz we have to have the acid function to get our enzymes/cofactors to function/bind to the stuff. We turn the acid function to a thioester bound to a coenzyme and cleave the alpha and beta carbons off, reattach the gamma to the carbonyl carbon and keep going repeatedly. So without the acid function the coenzyme can't make the thioester, and therfore can't recruit the enzyme that does the chompin'
So this bacterium probably has an enzyme to oxidize one end of the polyethylene to an acid and then uses the above process, or oxidizes to something slightly differnet and works from there.
REally, we'd only need to be able to add the acid functionality to hydrocarbons before we could all eat plastic. yum yum
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JaComet
Old Hand

Registered: 11/12/02
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: Acyl]
#8462812 - 05/30/08 07:03 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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T-1: Years ago I remember being uplifted when learning that bacteria was isolated from a Japanese nylon factory waste containment pool. This bacteria was metabolizing the nylon wastes into simpler compounds. I knew then that nature could solve many of our self inflicted problems if we would only observe and learn. (Now if the termite eating nematodes would just finish development . . .)
The young fellow took $30K CAN in cash and award. I’ll presume the judges suitably reviewed his records and presentation.
So we have ethylene gas [H2C=CH2], a relatively benign compound, catalyzed with various transition metal compounds into the solid mono / polyethylenes [C H2 & C H4] with little catalyst residue in the resultant product. What possible compounds could be metabolized from this molecular structure?
T-2: I don’t know why my recent posts have generated socio / political discourse, but they have. I’ll keep this short.
The voting systems are completely compromised and manipulable. The candidates in the “race” are all out of the same stable. The system is a sham run by criminal minded organizations.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: JaComet]
#8466412 - 05/31/08 02:19 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
JaComet said:
T-2: I don’t know why my recent posts have generated socio / political discourse, but they have. I’ll keep this short.
The voting systems are completely compromised and manipulable. The candidates in the “race” are all out of the same stable. The system is a sham run by criminal minded organizations.
You say you don't know why your posts generate political discourse, but then you claim all the elctions are rigged... In a thread about plastic bags 
Yeah, I have no idea why your posts get political
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WScott
´ ɑ `▽ ᑲᓇᑕ


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Re: Student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags [Re: johnm214]
#8476225 - 06/02/08 07:02 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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My friend brought this up the other day and it was not bad news after reading about that plastic garbage island in the Pacific. Such a young mind too.. what else will this generation be able to solve?
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