High School Student Isolates Plastic Eating Bacteria

I came across this wonderful story about Daniel Burd, a Canadian 16 year old that isolated bacteria that can eat a plastic bag in 3 months!  Amazing story and the logic he applied is so wonderful in its simplicity, yet no one else has done this.  Here it is in a nutshell.

1. It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade.  Yet, it DOES biodegrade so something has to be eating it.
2. He collects dirt from a landfill and creates and nurtures a bacteria farm, feeding it only ground up plastic
3. He isolates the bacteria that are thriving on his plastic meals and tests them individually.
4. First he finds the bacteria that eats the plastic the fastest
5. Second he finds the combination of bacteria that works the best
6. His controlled tests find a 50% reduction in plastic bag mass after 6 weeks

Absolutely brilliant.   Can’t wait to see what this  project leads to.  For Burd’s efforts he won a $10,000 prize and $20,000 scholarship although I expect there will be several universities offering him a full ride.