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VIDEO: Langley students have a great IDEA for battling plastic pollution

Event aims to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
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Langley students Ben Heynes, Holder Barber, Liam Troan, Cameron Nolan, and Liam Pyper showed off their 3D printed scale images of their bacterial solution to plastic pollution of the ocean. Dan Ferguson Langley Advance Times

If you’re going to solve the problem of plastic polluting the ocean, why not go to the source?

That was the reasoning of a team of five Langley students, who came up with embedding plastic with micro capsules containing a recently-discovered bacteria that digests plastic.

Team member Ben Heynes was explaining the concept Wednesday at the IDEA X event held at the Langley Events Centre field house.

“It [the micro capsules] will always be inside the plastics,” Heynes said.

“When it gets to the ocean, the salt water will rupture the capsules,” he added.

They were one of seven teams vying for honours at the event.

Another team proposed to recycle plastic bags into sleeping bags for the homeless.

It was held along with the IDEA summit, which featured 90 booths displaying products developed by Langley students from Grades 4 to 12.

They ranged from “do not disturb” signs to bath bombs shaped like cupcakes and even piñatas.

Thousands attended the event, mostly students bused in from Langley schools.

It was part of the new B.C. Applied Design, Skills and Technologies curriculum to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.

READ MORE: Creativity flows freely at IDEA Summit

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Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com

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Finn Carter of the Walnut Grove Secondary School robotics club demonstrated how to play soccer with an artificial opponent. Dan Ferguson Langley Advance Times
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A young vendor peered through her product display at the IDEA event held at the Langley Events Centre. Dan Ferguson Langley Advance Times


Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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