16 year-old Invents Bio-plastic from Banana Peels
Elif Bilgin
By: Amanda Froelich,
What comes to mind
before you discard your banana peel? Certainly not the consideration of
its use to reduce petroleum-based pollution and create bio-plastic, yet
this is exactly what Elif Bilgin, 16, from Istanbul, Turkey, sought to
achieve and successfully accomplished. Winner of the 2013 Science
in Action award, Google’s third $50,000 annual competition, she
addressed the need for environmentally friendly alternatives with
practical resources and easy-to-attain banana peels.
A motivated and
compassionate scientist, Elif was driven to find an alternative from
petroleum produced plastics to benefit the environment. In her journal
she mentions that Thailand discards 200 tons of banana peels per day,
therefore the starch and cellulose so important for plastic production
could be put to much better use. From her research she discovered that
potatoes and mango peels are already commonly used, therefore in Koc
High School, Turkey, she began experimenting.
Over the period of
two years, her trials using banana peels many times ended with
disappointment; 10 failed experiments that created plastics not strong
enough or too easily decayed did not slow her down, however. Fueled by
past scientist’s determination, she wrote “Even Thomas Edison said ‘I
have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. Her
persistence resulted in triumph with her last two trials, both creating
plastics that had features she sought.
Read more http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/
Her efficient method
of using banana peels was well documented in her online science entry
and easily shows how with little equipment, certain plasticizer
ingredients, and starch from the banana peels, it’s possible to create a
plastic that retains quality and structure long-term. Elif hopes that
the use of bio-plastic will be used to replace some of the
petroleum-based plastics in use today for such applications as
insulation for electrical cables and for cosmetic prosthesis.
Hoping to attend medical school someday, her future holds many bright achievements to be sure; she’ll continue competing as a finalist in the Google Science Fair for the 15-16-year-old category, and will fly, with 14 other contenders, to the company’s Mountain View campus in California.
Brilliant minds of a variety of ages continue to discover alternative methods for sustainable energy; the one question is, who will now apply these practical findings?
Sources:
Elif’s Science Project
Science America Review
Read more http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/
Hoping to attend medical school someday, her future holds many bright achievements to be sure; she’ll continue competing as a finalist in the Google Science Fair for the 15-16-year-old category, and will fly, with 14 other contenders, to the company’s Mountain View campus in California.
Brilliant minds of a variety of ages continue to discover alternative methods for sustainable energy; the one question is, who will now apply these practical findings?
Sources:
Elif’s Science Project
Science America Review
Read more http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/
http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/
Previously
the idea of cleaning up the world’s oceans with their vast
accumulations of disposed plastic material was considered an
impossibility. Now a 19-year-old inventor says he and his foundation has
a way to clean up the world’s oceans, and not only does he say we can
do it, but that we can do it in five years time and produce a profit
from it.
It is called the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ or sometimes the “Pacific
Trash Vortex”, and it is a massive collection of plastic particles
accumulating in the Pacific. Other oceans have their own collections of
plastic wastes as well; furthermore, most of the debris in our oceans
are plastic materials that accounts for approximately 90% of all the
waste debris.
Scientists have considered all manner of ways how the debris could be
retrieved but there was no clear answer for it.
Now a 19-year-old inventor by the name of Boyan Slat says we can remove
nearly 20 billion tons of plastic waste with his concept he calls an
ocean cleanup array. It is made from a massive series of floating booms
and processing platforms that gradually suck in the floating plastic
like a giant funnel.
The angle with how the array is set up allows all of the plastic to go
to where the platforms processing centers are floating. At the platform
processing area it would separate the naturally occurring life such as
plankton an only keep the plastic materials to be recycled.
plastic pollution indian patch 19 year old inventor finds way to clean
up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time
What is most impressive about the array is that once it goes operational
it would clean up the oceans in only 5 years time! He also makes a
point in saying that due to the vastness of our oceans most do not know
how badly polluted the oceans really are.
“One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn’t any
imagery of these ‘garbage patches’, because the debris is dispersed over
millions of square kilometers,” Slat says on his website. “By placing
our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it
suddenly possible to actually visualize the oceanic garbage patches. We
need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption
of plastic packaging.”
8 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5
years time
Slat was able to come up with the idea while in school, and so he wrote a
paper on his concept. Once Slat's paper was published it immediately
caught the attention of many marine experts. His paper won all manner
of prizes, which included the Best Technical Design 2012 from the Delft
University of Technology.
When he and others realized that the concept would work he took a leap
of faith and created a non-profit organization he calls The Ocean
Cleanup Foundation. This group will focus on the goal of developing his
invention, raise funds for it and make it operational as soon as
possible. His concept would save numerous aquatic species of fish and
help reduce PCB and DDT containments affecting all of us. Best of all
it operates on the power of the sun and by the oceans themselves.
Not only is Slat's concept self-powered, it would also be very
profitable from the all the recycling, which is estimated in the amount
of 500 million dollars (U.S.) per year. According to Slat's website it
"would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In
other words; it's profitable."
Read more:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6WkLB8
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
19-year-old
inventor finds way to clean up the world’s oceans in under 5 years time
Read more:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6Io38J
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
19-year-old
inventor finds way to clean up the world’s oceans in under 5 years time
Read more:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6Io38J
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
Previously
the idea of cleaning up the world’s oceans with their vast
accumulations of disposed plastic material was considered an
impossibility. Now a 19-year-old inventor says he and his foundation has
a way to clean up the world’s oceans, and not only does he say we can
do it, but that we can do it in five years time and produce a profit
from it.
It is called the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ or sometimes the “Pacific
Trash Vortex”, and it is a massive collection of plastic particles
accumulating in the Pacific. Other oceans have their own collections of
plastic wastes as well; furthermore, most of the debris in our oceans
are plastic materials that accounts for approximately 90% of all the
waste debris.
Scientists have considered all manner of ways how the debris could be
retrieved but there was no clear answer for it.
Now a 19-year-old inventor by the name of Boyan Slat says we can remove
nearly 20 billion tons of plastic waste with his concept he calls an
ocean cleanup array. It is made from a massive series of floating booms
and processing platforms that gradually suck in the floating plastic
like a giant funnel.
The angle with how the array is set up allows all of the plastic to go
to where the platforms processing centers are floating. At the platform
processing area it would separate the naturally occurring life such as
plankton an only keep the plastic materials to be recycled.
plastic pollution indian patch 19 year old inventor finds way to clean
up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time
What is most impressive about the array is that once it goes operational
it would clean up the oceans in only 5 years time! He also makes a
point in saying that due to the vastness of our oceans most do not know
how badly polluted the oceans really are.
“One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn’t any
imagery of these ‘garbage patches’, because the debris is dispersed over
millions of square kilometers,” Slat says on his website. “By placing
our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it
suddenly possible to actually visualize the oceanic garbage patches. We
need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption
of plastic packaging.”
8 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5
years time
Slat was able to come up with the idea while in school, and so he wrote a
paper on his concept. Once Slat's paper was published it immediately
caught the attention of many marine experts. His paper won all manner
of prizes, which included the Best Technical Design 2012 from the Delft
University of Technology.
When he and others realized that the concept would work he took a leap
of faith and created a non-profit organization he calls The Ocean
Cleanup Foundation. This group will focus on the goal of developing his
invention, raise funds for it and make it operational as soon as
possible. His concept would save numerous aquatic species of fish and
help reduce PCB and DDT containments affecting all of us. Best of all
it operates on the power of the sun and by the oceans themselves.
Not only is Slat's concept self-powered, it would also be very
profitable from the all the recycling, which is estimated in the amount
of 500 million dollars (U.S.) per year. According to Slat's website it
"would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In
other words; it's profitable."
Read more:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6WkLB8
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99
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