This past May, 16-year-old Daniel Burd won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. His idea for his project came to him in the most mundane way: Doing chores. Every time he got ready to do some, he would open a closet, only to have an avalanche of plastic bags spill out onto him.

Daniel’s house is hardly unique. Think about it: Just about every time you buy something, you can walk away with a plastic bag in your hand. Roughly 500 billion plastic bags are produced a year worldwide. Made from petroleum or natural gas and having all environmental problems of fossil fuel products, they blow through the air, pollute our streets, get stuck up in trees, float to the bottom of the ocean, and kill the sea animals that eat them. (It didn’t used to be this way: The plastic sandwich bag was invented just 50 years ago, and it wasn’t until the 1970s that American grocery store clerks started saying, “Paper or plastic?” Paper was the standard.)

The decomposition of some plastic bags is estimated to take as long as 1000 years. Daniel wondered, how can we make them decompose faster?

Daniel knew that not only are there too many plastic bags, but also that they don’t degrade very well. Plastic bags, like diamonds, are forever. Or at least they last a really, really long time. The decomposition of some plastic bags is estimated to take as long as 1,000 years. So Daniel wondered, how can you make them decompose faster?

And that's what he set about to do. His goal was to identify microorganisms that can break down plastic. The result? A process Daniel thinks will decompose plastic bags in just three months, a $20,000 scholarship, and a $10,000 prize at the national science fair. Below, he has answered your questions about how he did his project, his experience competing, and anything else you asked.

After coming up with your problem (plastic bags don't decompose fast enough) how did you begin researching to find a solution?

To gain the necessary understanding of the chemical and physical processes involved, I used the resources available at my local library. I was also able to access online encyclopedias, which were very useful to me during my research.

Did you work with a teacher or other students, or did you do book and internet research? Also, did you have any funding?

I researched and worked on my project "Plastic Not Fantastic" independently. I am very grateful to my mother, Mrs. Irina Burd, for her support and enthusiasm at some very tough moments and to Mrs. Speryn from bioMérieux for providing the API 20NE Identification Kit.

How did you go from just an idea to speed up the decomposition of plastic bags to actually accomplishing it? What actions did you take to get started and how did you obtain all the materials to construct it?

In total this project extended over a range of two years, from research to the stage at which I am at right now. During this period there were times at which I became discouraged, but my mother always encouraged me to continue forward.

How were you able to get a mentor, if you did have one?

I did not have a mentor, however, your local science fair organization will have programs in place to help you get in touch with a mentor.

How exactly did your project work? What microorganisms help to break down plastic faster?

In summary, a microbial consortium capable of degrading polyethylene (PE) was obtained as a result of an enrichment procedure. Two PE-degrading strains were isolated from the consortium and identified as bacteria belonging to the genus Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas. A high degree of PE degradation was achieved by using a combination of the two strains and optimizing the degradation conditions.

How did you get access to the materials you needed to experiment with the bag types? Did your school let you use their laboratory equipment?

Most of the necessary equipment was purchased from Ebay, while the API 20NE Identification Kit was provided from bioMérieux.

What topics did you research before you actually set out on the experiment? How did you find out which microbe would digest the plastic? Did you create a new kind of plastic or did you find a microbe that would decompose the regular plastic bags we use now?

Plastic bags have very high durability, persisting in the environment for 20 to 1000 years before they decompose. The development of a biotechnological approach to PE degradation is the main goal of this project. My hypothesis was that if PE-degrading microorganisms exist in nature, then it may be possible to isolate them and use them to degrade plastic bags.

"My hypothesis was that if polyethylene-degrading microorganisms exist in nature, it may be possible to isolate them and use them to degrade plastic bags."

What steps would it take to apply your method on a larger scale, like spraying down a dump site with the solution? Also, does the solution work on harder plastics?

The process of PE degradation developed in this project could be used on an industrial scale for biodegradation of plastic bags by using large fermentation tanks in which the isolated microorganisms would degrade the bags, provided that the necessary internal conditions (i.e. temperature, pH) were maintained.

Where did you perform this research?

I performed my research at my house; experiments were set-up in different areas to achieve different incubation temperatures.

At which institution do you wish to pursue your post-secondary education?

Right now, I am actually making decisions about this topic. My plan is to pursue an education in science.

What did you feel like when you heard that you'd won?

The 2008 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa, Ontario was my second national science fair, and my fifth science fair overall. The caliber and quality of the projects is extraordinary--everyone has put in hard work, time, and energy. It was a great honour to be chosen as the best-in-fair project.

More Information, Please!

• Read more about Daniel Burd and his project.
• Learn more about:
• how pervasive plastics are in our lives -- and our environment. Read a BBC journalist's personal effort to live A Month without Plastic.
• plastic bag recycling (or lack thereof). Only 5 percent of the plastic bags in the US waste stream are recycled. That's better than our record on polystyrene -- only 1% of polystyrene waste is currently recycled -- but it could be so much better with so little effort.
• biodegradable plastic bags. Yes, you can buy plastic bags that biodegrade quickly and naturally, such as BioBag and EcoSafe.