Invasive water hyacinth turned into biodegradable packaging
A team of engineering students at Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya got stuck in a dense mat of water hyacinth on Lake Naivasha. This framed two problems sitting in the same water: an invasive weed strangling the lake and the plastic waste piling up on its shore. So they asked the question: what if one problem could solve the other? Years of work has now resulted in a biodegradable packaging called Hyapak, which looks, feels and behaves like plastic, and is made from the very weed clogging the lake. Read the full story here.
GOODBYE PLASTIC! 👋 Comment and share this video if you want to see an end to plastics made from fossil fuels! It looks like plastics, feels like plastic, and even performs just like plastic, but it can decompose at the end of its lifetime. It is called HyaPak and was created by Joseph Nguthiru from Kenya, who was recently awarded the UN young Champion of the Earth. They produce it out of water hyacinth, the world’s most invasive aquatic weed. Hyacinth is a weed that grows on top of waterways in over 70 countries. It kills fish and blocks boats from travelling and is a breeding ground for mosquitos which cause malaria.
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