B.C. teens turn invasive berries, food waste into paper in prestigious youth science fair
The Youth Innovation Showcase is a competition for B.C. and Yukon teens
Two British Columbian teenagers have invented new uses for an invasive fruit and food waste, that could secure them some significant prize money in a science competition featuring innovative youth from B.C. and the Yukon.
Nicholas Creanga, 14, attends the Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning and, after turning the Himalayan blackberry plant into paper, has earned himself a semi-finalist spot in the 2023 Youth Innovation Showcase.
In its fifth year, the virtual competition highlights projects by youth age 12 to 19 that use science to solve a challenge in their community.
There are two age categories — under age 15 and under age 19 — and the winner of each receives $5,000.
Concerned about the environment, Creanga turned his attention to plant waste. It was trial and error at first.
"I decided to take leaf litter and make it into compostable bricks, but I found out that leaf litter actually helps by providing new plants with nutrients, so I couldn't do that," said Creanga, speaking to Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition on Wednesday morning.
So he started looking for a problem plant and realized the Himalayan blackberry, that is ubiquitous across many sites in Metro Vancouver and the province, could be the solution to his problem.
According to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., the berry, which was introduced from Armenia and Northern Iran, crowds out low-growing native vegetation and can create such dense thickets it limits the movement of large animals.
By cutting some of these invasive plants, then boiling, blending and moulding them, Creanga was able to make paper.
"It worked very well," said Creanga. "I'm hoping that I can scale it up after I get some people that I can do it with."
The prize money could help with that.
Inspired by The Office
Another semi-finalist, Margo Senchenko — who is in Grade 10 and attends the same Surrey school — was inspired by a popular television sitcom for her competition entry: paper made from food waste.
"I was watching The Office," said Senchenko with a chuckle.
The mockumentary comedy is set in an American workplace where employees slog through the daily grind of selling paper products at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
The show, said Senchenko, got her thinking how bad the paper industry is for the environment while also still being profitable in the digital age. This inspired her to invent a paper that, rather than creating waste, was created from it.
"So kind of just finding that middle ground of where I can like make something in a successful industry, but also that is not as harmful to the environment," she said on CBC's The Early Edition.
Her paper is made by boiling food waste in an alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide to break down the produce waste into pulp. She has been able to turn one pound of waste into enough pulp for ten sheets of paper.
Senchenko is thrilled her paper is being considered by competition judges and would like to eventually scale up and expand into packaging materials as well.
"I have been working on this project for over a year and to just see its potential, it's also really meaningful and to see that people are interested is a very big thing for me," said Senchenko.
Both Creanga and Senchenko are currently semi-finalists. The competition finalists will be announced on Nov. 6 and winners will be awarded their prizes on Nov. 29.
To keep an eye out on how the competition goes, visit the Youth Innovation Showcase website.
With files from The Early Edition