Our project is about understanding why plastic is causing so much harm to the environment and finding out why other material that is just as useful isn't. We want to figure out how we can make modifications to plastic to make it more eco-friendly and sustainable. Currently, lots of plastics end up in the oceans or animals eat them and release toxins in the water which can be very harmful to several ecosystems and sealife. We know that plastic isn't biodegradable and it releases toxic chemicals which are two of the most important reasons explaining why it causes so much harm, however, we also found that currently biodegradable plastic is being innovated. Our main goal in this project is to research current steps being taken to make plastic more environmentally friendly along with if their are microbes that can break down plastic to some extent and then use this information to see if plastic could be completely decomposable. If not decomposable, we want to at least find out if it's possible for plastic to be disposed of in ways where it doesn't enter our oceans and affect marine ecosystems. Finding a solution for this would drastically reduce our effect on the planet and overall improve our world for generations to come. Overall our plan is to research the different components of plastic and other useful materials to help substitute the substances in plastic that aren’t digestible for most animals. Based on our research we attempt to substitute the elements of plastic for more eco-friendly ones and hope to end with a biodegradable product. We believe that through our project we'll be able to find bacterias that can decompose plastic as well as biodegradable plastics and find out if they can really put a stop to plastic pollution. 

 

1. We started by meeting up together and began choosing our topic which was harder than expected. To do this we started off broad looking at topics and eventually narrowed it down by looking for current problems online. Eventually we realized that an arising issue was plastic pollution that bit by bit was taking over the earth’s ecosystems. When we arrived on this topic, we started developing core research questions to base our research on.

 

2. Once we had our questions we started to research about what actions are being taken to help with ocean pollution. That’s when we started to come across new ideas such as biodegradable polymers and microorganisms already existing that could degrade the most common types of plastics (PE, PP, PET, etc.).

 

3. This is around the point when our project took a slight turn, from being focused on why plastic is harmful to what can stop plastic from being so. We were able to gather more information about these plastics, like the procedures taken to make them, how they’re intoxicating ecosystems and so forth. With basic knowledge based off of this we started to dive into how biodegradable plastics are structured and what benefits they actually have.

 

4. We began to really understand biodegradable plastics and how they compared to normal plastics. Not only were the polymer structures different, but the whole process involved how they were made. Our research went into further detail about the elements and bonds plastic contained and how it was more than a useful material.

 

5. After most of our research was done we started to form graphs for our data, comparing the pros and cons of different plastics as well as how much of an impact it would really make if we turned over to biodegradable plastics. Our graphs were able to give visual repercussions of how much we could do about plastic. 

 

6. With our graphs done we were able to see how much of an impact plastic is and if our research could truly help. By understanding what biodegradable plastics could do we were able to make an application explaining how in the future we could go deeper with our research potentially conducting experiments to discover if biodegradable plastics were as useful as normal plastics. We also thought that this would give people a better understanding of weather to keep producing PET, PE, PP, and other such plastics and instead focus on the bacteria that could decompose this.

 

7. After completing everything we were finally able to form a conclusion and summarize what we discovered through our research. We also managed to state how we answered our main question/problem and how we believed the future of plastic pollution would play out. 

 

 

Why is plastic harmful to oceans?

           14 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Once plastic ends up in the oceans it starts to break down into microplastics. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic waste that are less than 5 millimeters in length. They are very hard to see with the naked eye and are quite dangerous. Microplastic come in a variety of sources but a main one is that up until 2019 makeup products were allowed to have microbeads. These microbeads are very small pieces of plastic that travel through the water system and end up in the oceans. Additionally microplastics carry many chemicals and contaminants. Microplastics release phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). PBDEs have been banned in Canada however they still are an issue. PBDEs are believed to cause liver tumors, neurodevelopmental and thyroid dysfunctions, but we still lack conclusive data about them.  A common chemical in plastic is BPA which has proved to interfere with humans hormonal systems as well as DEHP which is used to make plastic flexible but may cause cancer. Chemicals such as TBBPA cause many negative impacts on living organisms including its ability to easily accumulate in a body and create carcinogens (cells leading to cancer). TBBPA also is the reason for many tumors, endocrine disorders and other toxicities.5% of plastic packaging that ends up in the environment, with 40% in landfills and 14% is incinerated. Incineration is also just as bad for ecosystems as the burning of plastics releases the same chemicals into the air.These Microplastics are also impossible to remove from the oceans with current technologies. Animals eat these microplastics that are impossible for them to detect and the animals eating animals affected by these microplastics also get affected. In the end often humans end up eating microplastic filled fish. Studies show that microplastics over time have impaired growth of coral reefs. Coral reefs have 25% of the world's biodiversity. When this mix of toxic sludge and chemicals enters the oceans it harms the water, the ecosystems and the animals.

 

How does plastic affect ecosystems over time?

           Most plastics are non-polar, therefore meaning that they cannot be decomposed and stay on the earth essentially forever. Plastic is never truly gone and decomposed, it’s only broken down into smaller pieces, meaning it has multiple chances to affect ecosystems over time. These small plastics are called microplastics, and these eventually enter the soil causing lots of damage to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. After having entered the soil they accumulate and start causing stress on plants by blocking the seed pores and reducing overall water intake. MPs can also collect on roots blocking pores and reducing water or nutrient intake of a grown plant. Along with this, microplastics affect animals by accumulating once ate and then causing problems for the organisms livers, muscles, intestines and so on. Another major problem caused by microplastics is the chemicals they release into their surroundings (making it worse for them to reach water) including polychlorinated biphenyls, bisphenol and phthalates. These chemicals eventually get digested by animals and travel up the food chain, creating other organisms like carcinogens which lead to cancer. The main problem is caused by smaller microplastics, less than about 300μm in length, not only because they’re harder to detect but because of their ability to travel through tissues and cell membranes. Another way these chemicals reach the water is by rainwater from landfills absorbing water soluble compounds some of which are highly toxic creating leachates. This toxic substance then seeps away and enters our water systems.  Plastic also plays a big part in climate change and the releasing of greenhouse gases. Climate change is when radiations (energy travelling in the form of electromagnetic waves) produced by the sun as light energy enters Earth’s atmosphere, passing through a shield of gases in our atmosphere including co2 and methane. On a perfectly black planet the light energy would be absorbed by the earth heating it up, and then once again re-emitted as infrared waves. The waves turn into infrared waves because the earth is not as hot as the sun meaning it can produce as much energy. However, Earth isn’t perfectly black meaning that some of the light waves are reflected and these waves are sent back into space. The re-emitted infrared waves are trapped/absorbed by some of the gases in our atmosphere and sent back to Earth causing more infrared waves to be emitted. The reason these gases allow light waves in but not infrared waves out is because the light waves have a smaller wavelength meaning more energy than infrared wavelengths and it’s easier for the gases to absorb radiation with larger wavelengths or less energy. The greenhouse effect is a completely natural process and global warming just intensifies it’s capability.

 

Why can’t most organisms currently decompose plastic and which organisms can

         Plastic is made of many polymers, which are several monomers (atoms/small molecules) stringed together in a strong chain. Only if these polymers contain polar bonds can they be biodegradable and broken apart. A polar covalent bond is when 2 atoms are sharing their electrons, but one is more electronegative than the other giving it a slightly negative charge. In a bond like this the atoms are attracted to each other because one is negatively charged while the other is positively charged, and this is also what allows molecules to attract other molecules. For instance, water is a great  solvent because of its polarity. The slightly positively charged hydrogen atoms pull on any negatively charged atoms from other molecules and vice-versa. These pulls of the atoms is what breaks apart molecules, the process of this is hydrolysis. Since only polar bonds can be broken apart through hydrolysis only polymers with polar bonds can be easily decomposed. However, polar covalent bond is an umbrella term falling within it other chemical bonds including ether, ester and amide bonds all of which can be used in biodegradable polymers. The most common types of plastics used today include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the last of which use ester bonds. Hypothetically, this means that PET plastic should be biodegradable which it is, however the high temperatures this plastic is made at needs to be replicated to loosen the polymer bonds. Until recently no microorganisms were discovered to be able to survive in temperatures as high as 70° C, but then ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 was found. Enzymes in other bacterias hadn’t been adapted to degrading plastics, but this organism is specifically evolved for this job. Ideonella sakaiensis reverses the process used to make PET plastic, with 2 different enzymes; the first one called PETase breaks down the plastic into tinier molecules called MHET, required for the second enzyme (MHETase) to do the final step. The MHETase enzyme produces ethylene glycol and terephthalic acids to degrade the MHETs. This bacteria was able to decompose one of the worlds greatest plastics at a low temperature of around 30° C, making it suitable for environments outside of labs. Even though other microorganisms have been found able to degrade plastics, this bacteria was able to use the PET plastic as its main food source while breaking down the complex structures of polymers. Unfortunately, ideonella sakaiensis takes a long time to decompose plastic, but researchers were able to tinker with and merge these enzymes and make a new enzyme that would work about 6 times faster. PET plastics is just one however, out of the many commonly used plastics like PEs and PPs that begin to break down at temperatures over 120°C.

 

What are methods currently being used to supplement plastics components? 

         There are quite a few differences between biodegradable plastics and other common plastics, especially how they’re made. Polymers are chained together in a repeated pattern so that their carbon molecules form a backbone and the other molecules are attached to this. Normal plastic, or plastic that we use everyday such as PET, PP, PE and so on is made by isolating needed elements from natural resources to make ethane, propane or other chemicals, which are then heated, slowly expanding until they crack; creating ethylene, propylene and different monomers. These monomers are then gone through a process called polymerisation where they are introduced to a catalyst (something that speeds up a chemical reaction), pressure and more heat to create a repeated chain. A monomer has a carbon atom with a double bond to another carbon atom (these carbon atoms are attached to other elements), during polymerisation one bond is broken and each carbon forms a bond with a new carbon creating a repeated chain of monomers or a polymer. Biodegradable plastic is made differently and there are 2 main types of this plastic, argo-polymers and biopolyesters. Biopolyesters such as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) are created by microbes while argo-polymers including polylactic acid (PLA) are made from organic material like corn starch. To make biopolyesters microorganisms are fed only carbon based food so they create PHA to hold the carbon until they get the other nutrients they need to survive. The first step to making argo-polymers is isolating the sugar, then the sugar is fermented and turned into lactic acid (often by exposing it to lactobacillus bacteria), finally some more acids are added to the lactic acid to mimic polymerization. For plastic to be biodegradable it means that by being degraded by microorganisms it can be entirely turned into carbon dioxide, water or organic material. Since biodegradable polymers are either made out of biomass or naturally made, both biodegradable plastics can fully degrade. Unlike regular plastic, biodegradable plastic doesn’t need organisms that can survive high temperatures to break it down, but can degrade with microbes found anywhere. There are two major ways for plastics to be degraded, either by hydrolysis or enzymatic degradation. Hydrolysis is the process by which water is used to break down a substance, while enzymatic degradation uses enzymes. Water mainly starts the process when its atoms cut the polymer chain, usually not starting at the carbon backbone. When the polymer chains are broken down into smaller pieces (reducing the initial weight) then enzymes finish off by degrading the rest. PET, PE, PP and other plastics aren’t being modified to turn biodegradable, but instead elements from these plastics like they’re carbon backbone are being taken to make similar materials that are biodegradable. Theoretically, all plastic is biodegradable, but they have certain requirements that most organisms on Earth can’t meet which is why people are now trying to move forward by using items of similar properties. While plastics like PLA and PHA seem great they also have their drawbacks, for instance they’re not as durable and greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced more if plastics were just being made using renewable energy so whether they’re worth it is another question.

 

What components already exist in biodegradable plastic that are less harmful for the environment? 

Biodegradable plastic and compostable plastic is often made up of sources like seaweed and sugar beets as well as many other plants. If these products are sourced correctly it can be better for the environment than fossil fuels. However biodegradable plastics are tested to be degraded in lab conditions with correct levels of oxygen, UV exposure and temperatures and climate as well as other conditions. However the sad reality is that our environments are often not the same perfection and are not as stable and dependable as a lab environment. If these plastics don’t break down they will have the same effects as regular plastics. Regular plastic is often made with natural gas and oil. The amount of pollution and effects they have on the environment are often very harsh because to collect and refine oil releases many pollutants into the air which can affect the environment of animals. So overall biodegradable plastics can be better for the environment if their materials are sourced correctly.

 

How are plastics affecting sea life?

Plastic is very dangerous to marine life with at least 100,000 marine animals dying to plastic every year. Plastic also kills approximately 1 million seabirds every year. Animals either die from being caught and strangled by the plastic or mistaking it for food and dying of starvation. Worst thing is when other species eat these plastic filled animals they are eating the plastic too. A recent study has revealed that coral reefs with no plastic pollution have about a 4% chance of being diseased whereas reefs affected by plastic pollution have a 89% chance. Many species of animals depend on coral reefs and they are vanishing rapidly with severe declines in 2015 with 50% of the world's coral reefs being dead or severely damaged. Over 1 million species of marine life depend on coral reefs for habitat, spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Plastic Debris is currently the most abundant form of making up 80% of all marine debris found from surface level water to deep sea sediments. Chemicals also are being leached into the oceans from plastics. Chemicals such as BPA, PBDE, TBBPA and DEHP can hurt animals in the oceans. Habitats of ocean life are also destroyed by plastic and other waste. Plastic can smother coral reefs and seagrass, destroying them as well as other sensitive habitats.

This graph shows the production of plastic over the years and how the products have sky rocketed by the 2000s. To cope with all the impacts of plastics we wanted to see if biodegradable plastic was taking over the plastic industry and what we found was of 2023 around 52.1% of plastics were biodegradable while the other 47.9% wasn't. This is a large step forward to stepping away from the other plastics that release toxins, greens house gases and break down into microplastics, yet it wouldn't be able to destroy plastics already polluting the world. 

These were the results of different experiment conducted in 2011, so we unsure if these are accurate and up to date, but it is gives an idea of how PET and PS plastics emit much more CO2 then the biodegradable plastics. As you can see PS plastic results in almost 6 kg of co2 equivalent emissions per kg while PHA (the most efficent biodegradable plastic that we found) produces around 2.5. This really shows how we should transfer over to biodegradable platics to reduce the effects of global warming, and just help our ecosystems in general.

This table basically summrizes what we thought of biodegradable plastics compared to regular plastics and if they would really be able to take over the plastic industry. The main problem with biodegradable plastics is not only that they cost mores, but they cause they the question of wether plastics will be the long lasting plastics we know or they'll turn into more single use items (as they won't last as long as regular plastics). The main similarities between all types of plastics is their carbon based structure, but everything else from how they're made to how long they last is pretty different.

 

Application:

         In the future we hope to further use our research and understanding of plastic to find more possible solutions to plastic pollution. We want to see if there are any other materials in the world just as durable as plastic, but biodegradable, made out of something that can decompose quickly faster than PLAs or PHAs. Along with reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, biodegradable plastics and microorganisms that can decompose plastic cause the rising concern of whether plastic will still be durable. This is why we wish to find a solution where plastic must be disposed of carefully so it can be degraded in a specific environment. This idea is similar to that of PLA plastic, but even with this pollution will still be an issue. Either way anything that can be used to stop plastic that has already been made from harming ecosystems would be helpful and we are  hoping our research can contribute.

Based on our findings we find it safe to conclude that biodegradable plastics are better than regular plastics in some cases, yet the best way to solve plastic pollution is with microorganisms. What we found through our research is that biodegradable plastics such PLA and PHA do reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 25% however there are many drawbacks to these plastics. PLA plastic for instance can only biodegrade in a certain environment at specific temperatures by particular species. PHA plastic on the other hand seems more promising as it can break down in almost any condition, but this will also affect the plastic industry. Currently plastic is known for its durability and ability to last long, yet biodegradable plastic may change and plastic would fail to meet its standards. Overall, if bioplastics aren’t disposed of properly they could produce just as many greenhouse gasses as regular plastic and they cost a lot more money to make. While biodegradable plastic is helpful, whether it will put an end to plastic pollution in the long run is debatable. Microorganisms seem like they could potentially degrade a lot of plastic, but at the rate they’re currently decomposing the common PET, PP, PE, etc. plastics it could take over hundreds to thousands of years. Along with this, waiting for the baterias to adapt to plastic and break it down would take longer. All in all, the most promising solution we found was probably making biodegradable plastic using renewable energy. The most important part is finding a solution that truly fixes the problem of plastic pollution soon because the amount of pollution in our oceans is rising every year and it is destroying the oceans and killing animals in our environment as well as increasing effects on climate change. Our future looks promising, but finding the perfect solution is near impossible.

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We would like to thank our CYSF coordinator, Mrs. Rheinstein, for helping us come this far, taking the time to organize this for everyone and encouraging us to take iniative to make the best project we can. We would also like to awknoledge our families and friends for supporting and guiding us this whole time as well as helping us prepare for this project. Our families played a huge part in helping us get together and meet up to work on this project with minimal difficulties. And most importantly, we would like to thank our judges and the organizers of CYSF for making it possible for us to have this opportunity and experience it to the fullest.