Bags for Bacteria
Donation protected
For those who don't know me, my name is Michael Pearl. I live in Kinzers, PA and I am working to perfect a method of using common bacteria to break down plastic bags.
According to earth-policy.org, roughly 1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year. Out of these, the Clean Air Council estimates that less than 1% are recycled. The bags that aren't recycled meet their fate in landfills where they will take about 1,000 years to degrade. I use the word "degrade" here because plastic generally does not decompose. Rather, it breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic. The 100 billion plastic bags used each year in the US require a whopping 12 million bags of oil to produce. While some companies are developing bags that biodegrade, wide use of these alternatives has not been achieved. So what can we do about the continued accumulation of plastics in landfills?
In my research, I came across an experiment conducted by a Canadian student who found an effective way to break down these bags into compounds which are neutral to the environment. The bacterial strains identified were members of the genus Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas (I apologize for the lack of italix, but unfortunately gofundme does not offer this option).
I would like to replicate this experiment, perfect isolation techniques, and culture the necessary strains to achieve decomposition of these plastic bags. I intend for this to be the first step in the process of making a cost-effective and largescale use of a bacterial solution to this environmental problem. The money I am requesting will be used to purchase an entry-level microscope, a bacteria incubator, agar plates, bacterial cultures, and the necessary items to be used in bacterial isolation and identification. I am very hopeful that you will donate to this cause. As I get closer to my goal, I will develop a webpage that will allow everyone to track my progress in conducting this experiment. We can do this together!
According to earth-policy.org, roughly 1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year. Out of these, the Clean Air Council estimates that less than 1% are recycled. The bags that aren't recycled meet their fate in landfills where they will take about 1,000 years to degrade. I use the word "degrade" here because plastic generally does not decompose. Rather, it breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic. The 100 billion plastic bags used each year in the US require a whopping 12 million bags of oil to produce. While some companies are developing bags that biodegrade, wide use of these alternatives has not been achieved. So what can we do about the continued accumulation of plastics in landfills?
In my research, I came across an experiment conducted by a Canadian student who found an effective way to break down these bags into compounds which are neutral to the environment. The bacterial strains identified were members of the genus Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas (I apologize for the lack of italix, but unfortunately gofundme does not offer this option).
I would like to replicate this experiment, perfect isolation techniques, and culture the necessary strains to achieve decomposition of these plastic bags. I intend for this to be the first step in the process of making a cost-effective and largescale use of a bacterial solution to this environmental problem. The money I am requesting will be used to purchase an entry-level microscope, a bacteria incubator, agar plates, bacterial cultures, and the necessary items to be used in bacterial isolation and identification. I am very hopeful that you will donate to this cause. As I get closer to my goal, I will develop a webpage that will allow everyone to track my progress in conducting this experiment. We can do this together!
Organizer
Mike Pearl
Organizer
Buyerstown, PA