Julia Rosecrans' DP

              Since the debut of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the water bottle plastic, in 1941, the growth of this versatile material has lead us to a reality where upwards of sixty million plastic water bottles end up in landfills everyday. According to MSLK’s Watershed, forty billion out of the fifty billion plastic bottles that are bought each year end up in landfills. Plastics such as PET take millennia to break down. Continuing to keep up these consumption habits will inevitably cover the earth in these toxic materials. This is significant because the introduction of plastic into natural ecosystems can be devastating. The toxins found in plastic are commonly consumed by wild plants and animals once plastic enters their environment. However, this is not the only way that plastic can pose a threat to an ecosystem. Hard, sharp plastics can cause physical injuries to an organism and even the shape of plastics can be dangerous. For example, sea turtles may get caught in soda can rings which will stunt the development of the turtle and potentially even kill it. Ultimately, plastic can lead to the unfortunate death of many organisms in a variety of different ways.

             We asked ourselves what we could do to limit the growth of plastic masses in landfills and after spending a lot of time researching and looking to biology for inspiration, we came up with an interesting systematic innovation to improve the reuse and recycling of plastics as well as farming. Our design consists of a farm which is enclosed in a large greenhouse, the soil contains bits of PET and HDPE plastics. The water that is used to water the crops within the greenhouse is treated with these recently discovered bacteria that can break down these plastics into PHA plastics. PHA degrades over the course of a month and leaves us with water and carbon dioxide in its place. This water and carbon dioxide act as food for the crops until they are harvested. One of the concerns that we have heard is that this will be counter-productive to our efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, however, containing this system within a greenhouse environment solves this problem as the carbon dioxide will be unable to escape before it is used by the crops. Because it is in a greenhouse it still allows the plants to receive the sunlight that they need.