Plastic waste is one of the worst problems for by waste management companies, and because plastic takes thousands of years to deteriorate, we're running out of space for all our trash. Enter Daniel Burd and his amazing plastic eating microbe, a scientific discovery he entered into the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa, Ontario which may lead to global changes in how we deal with our trash.
Daniel theorized that even though it takes plastic over 1,000 years to decompose, it does eventually do so, which means there must be microbes eating away at the plastic. He devised a way to speed up the microbial decomposition of the plastic using a compound that contains yeast (among other things), and isolates of the most productive microorganisms. His final product resulted in 43% degradation of plastic in just six weeks, a vast improvement over the natural plastic decomposition rate and a possible hope for dealing with our ever growing global trash problem.