L'Oreal science camp winners: Simple solution to a major problem

Kurniawan Hari ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bogor, W. Java   |  Sun, 05/25/2008 12:01 PM  |  Discover

The winner of this year's L'Oreal Girls Science Campheld from April 23-24 at the Pasirmukti Garden in Bogor, West Java - is a team of three students from SMA 71-Jakarta senior high school. They submitted a research paper titled "Membawa Bekal Menghemat Energi" (Bring your own lunch, save energy).

In their paper, Ade Maya, Anisha Goeslina and Nanda Nur Alifiani urge their schoolmates and all students to reduce plastic waste, such as plastic cups, straws and bowls used by school cafeterias, by bringing their own lunches in a reusable container.

Prepared over a period of three weeks, their paper presents a simple environmental solution and with it, conveys a strong and clear message to us all. The basic concept behind their paper was to illustrate the amount of lunchtime plastic waste produced as automotive fuel usage - that is, as wasted energy.

"I thank my teammates, my teachers and all my classmates, especially those who participated in the survey. This win is very meaningful," Ade told The Jakarta Post.

The idea to conduct research into plastic waste, Ade said, came following their observation that only a few students at SMA 71 brought their own lunches from home. Most of the other students bought their lunch from the school cafeteria, which used plastic serving platters, cups and straws, sometimes in plastic bags too.

Their research found that only 36 per-cent of students at the school brought their own lunches.

A simple calculation showed the team that 603 of a total of 941 studentsor 64 percent of the student bodybought their lunch at school. In adding the 85 teachers and administration staffers who also bought their lunch at school, they came up with a total numbermakers" of 688 people.

The team estimated the average mass of lunchtime plastic waste produced by a single person at 0.76 gram per day. So in one month (calculated as 20 school days), the amount of lunchtime plastic waste produced is 0.76 X 688 X 20 = 10,457.6 grams, or almost 10.5 kilograms.

The students found through the Internet that the fuel needed to produce every 0.2 gram of plastic is equal to the fuel needed to run a small car a distance of 115 meters.

From this information, they calculated that the fuel needed to produce the total monthly lunchtime plastic waste at school was equal to the gasoline needed to drive a car a distance of 6,013 km.

Assuming a gas mileage of 1 liter of gasoline per 10 km, this meant that within a month, the "waste makers" at SMA 71 "wasted" 601 liters of gasoline. The team then converted this into a monetary value of Rp 2.7 million (Rp 4,500 X 601 liters of gas; US$290) every month.

"That is too much," said Ade.followed up our findings with a campaign at school. We asked students to bring lunch in reusable containers rather than buying it at school."

Meanwhile, Annisa said that she was very excited that the research paper she had written with Ade and Nanda won the L'Or*al Girls Science Camp 2008.

"It opens the door to my future career in science. I am interested in science, but I have not yet decided which field I will focussaid Annisa, who is also active in the school's journalism club.

Ade, Annisa and Nanda have shown in their winning research paper that by simply bringing their own lunches, students would not only contribute to a cleaner environment and to conserving energy, but also help to reduce hidden financial costs.

Plastic facts

Plastic was introduced about 25 years ago.

Today's worldwide consumption rate is over 500 billion plastic bags annually; this is almost 1 million plastic bags per minute.

Average household waste includes about 11% of plastic.

Plastic is made from oil, a non-renewable resource that is created over millions of years.

Oil is estimated to run out in the next 50 years at current consumption rates.

Single-use bags (typically the plastic bags supplied at supermarkets and other retail stores) takes up to 1,000 years to decompose.

In Africa, cottage industries have been established to "harvest" windblown plastic bags (bags carried by the wind) to make hats and bags out of them. One such cottage industry is reported to harvest 30,000 such bags per month.

Recycling plastic is not a regulated, mandatory activity around the world, although plastic is available in virtually every country in the world.

Sources: reusablebags.com, recyclingconsortium.org.uk, recoup.org

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