A little background on me. I graduated with double majors in Chemistry and Physics. I went on to get my master’s in Physics, I know a thing or two about these subjects, which made me the perfect candidate for this job.

I started out doing research and purity tests down in Texas. I started off with soil and water and helped eliminate quite a bit of bacteria from the Dallas-Fortworth area. After 2 years of this, I received an e-mail from a company I never heard of. I won’t be using the name of the company just to keep myself safe, if I can. Inside the e-mail they offered me a job. The main goal was to eliminate waste from landfills by creating a chemical that would destroy organic matter.

Organic matter is basically anything made up of carbon. People, plants, and anything found on earth that is “natural” in most likely organic. Plastic and metal make up most of the waste on earth, metal is organic and plastic is derived from organic compounds. It wouldn’t totally empty out plastic from landfills, but it would help sustain the earth for hundreds and maybe even thousands of years.

I was ecstatic when I read this. I went an talked to my boss the next day and he was torn, but happy to let me go. He understood what a difference this would make and wished me the best of luck.

They sent me the address of the company which was about 25 minutes from my apartment, give or take. I walked in wearing a suit and tie hoping to impress on my first day.

It was pretty boring, meeting with HR reps, several supervisors, and eventually, my new boss. As I was signing the paperwork, I didn’t really understand what the company’s main business was.

“Can you tell me a little more about [company name]?” I asked.

“We are a government funded research facility that specializes in alternatives which result in a safer environment. We work on anything from electric powered cars to kitchen wares. We don’t do any large scale production, but we develop and test newly patented technology to then sell it to companies that mass produce them.” Bradley responded. (I’ll call him Bradley)

“What will my schedule look like, does it include benefits if I’m full time?” I replied.

“You will work 40 hours a week, depending on the success of tests as we are on strict timelines. How much did you make at your old job if you don’t mind me asking?” he said.

“About $50,000 a year.” I replied.

“Well, I bet $120,000 plus benefits sounds great then.” he said.

I was blown away when he said this. I never even knew about this company but they were shelling out big bucks for smarties like me. I finished my papers including a confidentiality agreement which I am breaching right now. I left and eagerly waited for my first day on the job the following morning.

I arrived at 8:40 and was met by 7 other people already dressing in lab coats. I was told I didn’t need one since they provided them, but some of my coworkers had cool designs on theirs. Once guy had a coat covered in pugs that were all were chasing tennis balls. I introduced myself and everyone was welcoming me to the team. When it was time for our first brief, we met with our supervisor outside the lab.

“Now, we are trying to create a chemical that can help eliminate waste in landfills. It’s currently May 26th, if this is done before July 31st, we all get a bonus check in the mail. I want this done, and I’m sure you all want some extra money. Have fun, and be safe in there.” he said.

Bradley didn’t go into the lab with us, he handled a lot of business relative to our chemicals, work environment, and what I’m assuming were business reps. He probably spoke with upwards of 10 people a day just about this product we were creating. He’d walk them through the hallway and let them admire our hard work through the windows.

The first week was spent solely on brainstorming what we could do. One idea was to create some kind of cleaning agent using hydrochloric acid. If it can melt through your arm, it can knock out plastic no problem. There were a few critical errors with this idea, first off, it gives off fumes that can irritate someone’s eyes, nose, and cause all kinds of problems if it lingers in the air. Second off, the plastic would give off a lot of toxic fumes with the reaction. We couldn’t just melt the plastic, we’d have to find a way to break the bonds on a molecular level.

I had eventually pitched an idea to the group which we all agreed on. If we added 4 catalysts which would speed up the reaction to break bonds. It was then added in with a mix that would disintegrate the carbon and oxygen molecules inside of organic material using a mix which I won’t share as it is extremely dangerous to combine, even in a lab setting with proper fume hoods. To give you an idea, most processes that use a catalyst use 1 or 2 at the most, so doubling the “safe maximum” was a stretch. I had to test this mix out on metals and plastic for about a week before I could successfully run the reaction 10 times.

10 times was a little overkill in my eyes, I know for science that procedures must be repeatable, but it was brutal. I could only produce 2 batches of my mix coined as “OrgExt.” by one of my coworkers, organic extermination was his original phrase but I shortened it to OrgExt. on the bottle. We chemists may be smart, but catchy names and brands isn’t our strong point.

On June 21st, I had the tests and finished product ready for my supervisor. He walked in with one of our corporate executives, I think he was a COO, and asked to see it in action. I poured just a few drops of my chemical onto a plastic bowl and watched as it dissolved in seconds.

“Hey, I like the small scale, but what about larger things?” the COO asked.

“In theory, it will work on anything organic, what do you have in mind?” I asked.

He smiled and said:

“Make sure you have more for tomorrow.” he said.

I walked into work to see what looked like a rummage sale in our lab. There were large plastic containers stacked on each other, and even a computer monitor.

I walked up and poured a few drops of my chemical on them and they all disintegrated within 3 seconds.

The COO went wild, he was more and more excited with what I created. He did however have another request for me.

“We can’t just sell bottles of this stuff, it could be spilled and harm people. I want this is pellets, they need to be stored and then used when needed. I also want a device that could deliver it, similar to a spray nozzle. Could you do this?” he asked me.

I looked around at the team and received nods from everyone.

“We’ll get it done.” I said.

He patted my supervisor on the back and they walked out as we all celebrated. After our high fives and fist bumps, we started brainstorming ideas on our whiteboard when the supervisor walked in about 10 minutes later.

“Go home guys, have a drink, call your parents, whatever you want to do. You’ve earned an early weekend.” he said.

It was only 11:30 but it was Friday, so I didn’t argue. A few of my coworkers invited me out for dinner and we had a blast. In total, all of us racked up a $400 bill as we drank and ate all we wanted.

I returned to work on Monday and we brainstormed for more ideas. Barium Nitrate was the winner of our ideas and we set out on creating a pellet that would hold my mixture. It’s tough enough to contain OrgExt. but fragile enough to break when it hits something. By Friday, we created pellets which could successfully hold OrgExt.

We also created a handheld spray gun similar to a garden hose where using a small pressurized tank, it could shoot one out and start building up pressure in the small chamber attached to it. It was basically a paintball gun with my pellets instead of paintballs.

The COO walked in the next day and couldn’t believe what we did. Far ahead of schedule, we had created a compound which could destroy the waste in landfills.

I gave the COO and my supervisor the information to mass produce it, they started 2 days after that.

Yesterday, one of my coworkers called me and asked if I could come down to her place.

“What’s up”? I asked when she greeted me at the door.

“Tay, this is bad.” she responded with a guilty look on her face.

“What’s the matter? We created the biggest invention in possibly the last 50 years?” I asked.

“I found out what OrgExt is for, and it’s not landfill.” she replied.

“What the fuck, what else are they going to use it for?” I asked.

She pulled out her phone and showed me a video she shot from our supervisor’s computer. It showed them taking OrgExt and testing it on a person. A living, breathing person. They fired this out of a gun similar to the one I created and the pellet hit the person right in the stomach, the pellet went inside the person and he started disintegrating from the inside. Within 10 seconds, he was nothing. His skin, bones, flesh, all of it disappeared in front of my eyes.

“We did something bad, Tay.” She said.

I knew when she said we that was her way of not making me feel all the guilt. I created OrgExt, my coworkers brainstormed with me and helped test it, but I created it. It’s now in the hands of people with a lot of resources and numbers.

When my check comes in the mail, I’m moving as far away as I can..