CSIRO
Jennivine Chen - Seaweed as the New Plastic
Concerned with the difficulty in recycling takeaway paper cups, Jennivine Chen decided to investigate an alternative for the plastic lining in paper coffee cups. She used different sources of polysaccharides, a plastic-like polymer found naturally in seaweed and combined them with common plasticisers to increase water resistance. Alginate coatings with pectin and PVA mixture as plasticiser showed the highest water resistance which could be used in coffee cups.
See more about the 2019 BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Awards 2019 finalists – https://www.scienceawards.org.au/Student-Awards