Siya’s Micro Plastic Restaurant (no reservations required)

We are preventing water-borne illnesses that contaminate cities of the developing world. According to the World Health Organization,“Waterborne diarrheal diseases, for example, are responsible for 2 million deaths each year, with the majority occurring in children under 5.” Financially, health costs associated with waterborne diseases (malaria, diarrhoea, and worm infections) “represent more than one third of the income of poor households.” 50% of urban residents in developing countries are still affected by diseases related to insufficient access to safe drinking-water and improved sanitation.

Our bacterial enzyme hybrid system absorbs microplastic from contaminated water preventing water-borne illnesses.  Our child friendly solar powered dolphin design (made with a body of plastic eating bacterial enzymes can help stop the spread of illnesses in overcrowded cities all over the world and thus give those at risk a chance to reach and actualize their potential.

Water related diseases cause 3.4 million deaths each year. We are being “tsunamied” by plastic pollution, from Guatemala to Romania and everywhere in between. According to The Microplastics Initiatives of Adventure Scientists’ globally, “microplastics are accumulating at a higher rate in marine systems(89% of samples contained microplastic pollution) than in freshwater systems (51% of samples contained microplastic pollution). Microplastic contamination is ubiquitous across remote sample locations in both marine (including polar regions) and freshwater systems (including in glaciers around the world and the headwaters of the Missouri River).”

Microplastics also travels by air, reaching major population centers. "11,400 pieces of microplastic per square meter per month, on average contaminate our water.” A 2017 study found that 83 percent of tap water samples collected globally, including 94 percent of USA samples, proved microplastic contaminated. USA had the highest rate of contamination.

Large plastic pollution (the origin of microplastic pandemic) killed a sperm whale found on Sardinia. It had 48 pounds of plastic in its stomach, including microplastics mixed in with a corrugated plastic tube and shopping bags.

 Microplastics must be removed for any city to be fully healthy and future-viable- Siya’s micro plastic restaurant offers an answer.

Everyone on earth is affected by microplastic--

“Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland sampled 11 locations along roughly 500 miles of the river’s surface from Basel to Rotterdam. Everywhere they dipped they found plastic—beads, shards, and fibers, in concentrations as dense as 3.9 million pieces per square kilometer.”

A time bomb waiting to explode for every living thing on this planet.

“... 191 million plastic particles (flow into) the North Sea, and that only takes into account the surface particles. Even though, in terms of weight, this only corresponds to roughly 25 to 30 kilos a day, this adds up to 10 tons a year. Each one of these billions of plastic items can be ingested by organisms and have negative effects on their health.”

Siya’s microplastic restaurant addresses and solves this problem. Removing microplastics from the food chain will promote better health and take a tremendous burden from the health care system.

The second phase of our project creates an orca restaurant made of Ideonella sakaiensis and the microplastic eating fungi, Aspergillus tubingensis. These restaurants would be positioned all over the city. While the orcas are eating the microplastics other people in the restaurants are eating.

It has to float.

Has to be durable.

Can’t hurt anything in the water or at the shoreline.

We are building a non-invasive system to destroy microplastics

Our human and aquatic friendly solar powered dolphin  is made up of:a body of plastic eating Aspergillus tubingensis and Ideonella sakaiensis which can help stop the spread of contagious  and potentially deadly illnesses in overcrowded cities all over the world.

Our solution that will cleanse and purify all bodies of water and also solve the threat from RWI’s.

Siya’s Micro Plastic Restaurant (no reservations required) combines the bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis and the plastic eating fungi, Aspergillus tubingensis. In approximately two months Aspergillus tubingensis can biodegrade polyester polyurethane (PU) into smaller pieces and then eventually disappear(all gone bye bye!).

Siya’s Micro Plastic Restaurant is dolphin shaped (with Siya’s micro plastic restaurant written on each of its sides) and solar powered (on its back). It is mobile and will navigate anywhere in the city where the people have a connection to water. It will be constantly absorbing plastic and micro plastic. It's a combination of bacteria and fungi  which will be incorporated into its whole body, absorbing microplastic in the air and water.

It will be a moving plastic eating machine.

Fungi and bacteria can coexist and interact in a variety of environments. This may be the very first time these two plastic eaters have been combined.

Combining two effective bacteria and fungi to eat microplastic is a novel design. If this can be used in urban populations it will provide a safe environment for future life.  

The bacteria-- Ideonella sakaiensis and the fungi--Aspergillus tubingensis

Siya's Microplastic restaurant works to eliminate microplastics where it matters most, in the daily life of a city. We must address this problem before the contamination reaches its tipping point. 

We potentially will serve billions of people. 

For the next year, we want to create a prototype/working model to test this in a small lake or pond in Boston, Massachusetts. In the next five years we would like this to expand to India, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. 

That invisible things don't attract problem solving interests. H

How to create a meme that everyone knows that there is microplastics, not just scientists, but the average person who can do something about it. 

The concept and design is my own but I had assistance from a students at Phillips Andover--Anay Mehta.

We understand the symbiosis of Bacteria and Fungi and we know that to solve a big problem, you need to combine them to make the biggest impact on microplastics possible. 

We are offering our design to the world as a gift and we would like to partner in our microplastic restaurant with any and all who can help us actualize our design. 

In college, next year, I will present my design to ideation events to look for investments. 

We want to build momentum and a meme so that microplastic becomes a common word in everyone's language, so we can solve this problem. We think we have a unique, non invasive way to do it. 

Anyone who has the same spirit as us to solve this proble, 

If we won this prize, we would immediately begin the prototype phase, choosing a location that is in an at risk situation, so we can make the most important impact to people whom need it the most. We will research those developing countries where this situation exist and begin to place our design there. We would place our design in areas where humans are most in danger of contamination. 

Being a women, we could target area in the developing world where women are more at risk of microplastic contamination because of their roles in societies.