17-year-old teen uses shrimp shells to create plastic alternative

16 Mar 2020

17-year-old teen uses shrimp shells to create plastic alternative

17-year-old teen uses shrimp shells to create plastic alternativeMeet 17-year-old Angelina Arora from Adelaide, Australia. After attempting experiments with several other materials, she has come up with an alternative to plastic, made from shrimp shells!

How did Angelina come up with this idea?

One evening, after a long day of experimenting with many materials to create an alternative to plastic, Angelina realized that shrimp shells "look like plastic".
 	This gave her the inspiration to use it to create a bioplastic that completely degrades within about 33 days in a landfill.

What is this new type of 'bioplastic' that she has created?

It is flexible, durable (hardy), insoluble (does not dissolve in water), and transparent.
 	Additionally, like many other seafood waste products, prawn (shrimp) shells are rich in nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most important ingredient in plant fertilizers. So, Angelina's invention will also be useful in agriculture - the bioplastic waste can be used to fertilize fields.

While plastic pollution is a huge problem we face today, it is encouraging to see that young people are leading the way in the fight against plastic.

Do you also have an idea to create a plastic alternative? Share with us.

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Meet 17-year-old Angelina Arora from Adelaide, Australia. After attempting experiments with several other materials, she has come up with an alternative to plastic, made from […]

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