- 80% of marine litter originates from land with only 9% of plastic currently being recycled globally
- Single-use plastic and cigarette butts are the biggest threat to oceans and marine life
- IET Global Challenge encouraged young professional engineers across the globe to ‘Save our Seas’ and solve real world plastic and toxic waste threat
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has named the winners of its global engineering challenge, which tasked young entrepreneurs to develop an innovative solution to help clean up the estimated 18 billion pounds of increasing plastic waste that enters our oceans each year.
Working with Greenpeace and GreenSeas Trust, the IET set two very different challenges, looking at reusable packaging in supermarkets and tackling the trillions of cigarettes currently in our waters, with teams needing to solve one of them to be in with the chance of working with organisations that can make a real difference.
The winners include:
- GreenSeas Trust scenario – Team Baywatchers from Oxfordshire made up of Helena Livesey (25), Jonathon Witty (24), George Fulton (23), and Alexander Morgan (25), has developed a crab-like robot concept, KRABB-E, which has been designed to collect cigarette-butts from UK beaches.
- Greenpeace scenario – Team NanoMalaysia from Malaysia made up of PhD students Ivan Ling (27), Pauline Phoon Bao Lee (28), Tan Chin Joo (28) and Ong Chong Cheen (27), has developed a new approach, PICAS block, which provides an alternative for packing dried, loose food products by using carrageenan and starch to create dissolvable food blocks, in the hope of significantly reducing the amount of plastic waste from supermarkets.
Baywatchers team member Helena Livesey, who is a Mechanical Design Engineer at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, explains: “We wanted to enter as we thought the challenge could have a real positive and global impact and we’re delighted to have won! We were quite surprised but glad all of our hard work has paid off.
“Engineering and technology is so vital to help tackle environmental change – we can use it to fix problems that we’ve already caused – like with the use of KRABB-E – but also to monitor and inform new technologies, helping to change behaviours and how we interact with our environment.”
NanoMalaysia project leader, Ivan Ling, who works at the University of Southampton Malaysia, says: “We’re extremely honoured to be chosen as the winner for this prestigious award. We never thought a small team like ours would have the chance to travel to the UK – it’s very exciting. We plan to develop the PICAS block further and hope to have it commercialised in the near future.”
Science, nature and environment presenter Liz Bonnin, says: “Plastic is everywhere, it’s in our oceans and in the air we breathe, and is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. The science is irrefutable, we need to drastically reduce plastic production and consumption to safeguard the future of wildlife, our children and our planet. The IET’s Global Challenge is seeking to find solutions to this crisis and it’s incredibly heartening to see young entrepreneurs creating innovative designs to be the change the planet needs. The Baywatchers’ KRABB-E and NanoMalaysia’s PICAS block are tackling the problem from different angles – which is exactly what we need if we are going to give the natural world a fighting chance. I’m excited to see how these concepts progress.”
Dr Peter Bonfield, IET President, adds: “This competition is all about giving young engineers a platform to highlight their innovations. By shining a light on a particular problem we’ve found that engineers think outside of the box and come up with innovative solutions.
“I’d like to congratulate Baywatchers and NanoMalaysia for their fantastic concept. Previous winners of this challenge have gone on to see their innovations become a reality, so this is a great way to make a difference and solve a real-world challenge.”
The winning teams from both challenges will receive a £500 cash prize, trophy and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend the IET’s prestigious Innovation Awards ceremony in London where their winning solution will be revealed to the audience. If you’d like to attend the Innovation Awards, please book your place via https://www.ietinnovationawards.org/.
For more information, visit www.theiet.org/global-challenge and follow the challenge on social media #IETSaveOurSeas.
