Some Pontiac High School students hope to convince a local grocery store chain to buy into their science project.

The landfill just outside Pontiac, Illinois, is the second largest in the U.S. With so much trash piling up some local students say the environment will only get worse.

Pontiac High School student Jakob Miller said, "All the plastic bags polluting there and getting stuck and everything. I think we should try to get rid of them and use something more like this bag here to get rid of all the pollution."

Sophomore Marcus Fultz added, "At first I didn't think it was that big of an issue but when you find out facts it helps a lot. Regular plastic bags can just hold so much junk for years and biodegradable bags they'll decompose anywhere between 90 and 180 days."

Fultz and the students in Paul Ritter's science class spent nearly two weeks researching the benefits of using biodegradable bags in grocery stores compared to plastic ones.

They invited Greg Besgrove from the local County Market Grocery store to Pontiac High School Thursday in hopes he will buy into the idea.

Amanda McBride said, "If they use it then maybe we can get Walmart and everybody else to use it and they can stop with all the plastic bags flying everywhere."

Basically the product is from corn and soybeans and a lot of those plants are here locally so it's better for Pontiac as well as the rest of the world.

Besgrove agrees with the students about the benefits of biodegradable bags...but says at 7-cents apiece plastic ones are about 8-cents cheaper.

The County Market Store director said, "Customers really want us to find another vehicle to be able to get their groceries in a bag. But we're struggling with finding a good cost effective method to do that."

Besgrove says right now he has to stay within his budget but still wants to test the biodegradable bags at his store.