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Aug 5, 2009

"If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem." --J. Krishnamurti

Teenager Finds Solution to Plastic

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 Canadian 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 and 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 student, got the idea for his project from everyday life.