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Teenager’s plastic pollution idea wins $50,000 science prize

05/08/2019
An Irish teenager has won a $50,000 prize at the 2019 Google Science Fair for his work on developing a new method for removing microplastics from water. Eighteen-year-old Fionn Ferreira from County Cork saw pieces of plastic sticking to rocks in the sea near his home and began to experiment with a method for adding substance to water to attract plastic particles.

He found that adding oil and iron oxide attracted the plastic particles in water, which he was then able to remove using a magnet.

He said he hopes to be able to scale the idea up for use in wastewater treatment plants.


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