 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. And we're live. Welcome to our new episode of Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech Hawaii. Every week we talk about things that matter to Hawaii and we do this with our brilliant school students and their science project. Now, last week we talked about this. Well, we didn't talk about my lunchbox here, but we talked about plastics and its impact that is making to our environment and our oceans. Today we want to continue to talk about plastics. And we have a guest joining us today, Zoe Dawn from Stevenson Middle School. And nice to have you here. Welcome to the show. Welcome. And you know, she's a VIP because she's the winner. She's the second place winner of the State of Hawaii Science and Engineering Fair Junior Division. That's right. That's right. Welcome to the show. Welcome. And so plastics. And we were chatting a little bit before our show and you mentioned the plastic era. We're living in a plastic era. What does it mean? So the plastic era is basically our this century. We have been increasingly producing plastics and it has been becoming a substantial thing that we use in our daily lives. And we're depending on this plastic for everything from our studio right here. We have many plastics in our room right now to schools, to hospitals, to a lot of different places. And using the plastic, we don't realize how much we're discarding after we use it. And we're not going through a process that is able to discard these plastics because plastics itself, they take millions, actually thousands of years, excuse me, thousands of years to just go under the soil. And after they're under the soil, their molecular structure is still present, meaning they're not completely destroyed and they're still there. And plastic is very harmful for our environment. And us humans making these plastics is harming our planet in a way that we don't know how to solve yet. And my project, which is Mancham Plastic, we use worms to digest these plastics, to have a eco-friendly solution to dispose these plastics using natural things like waxworms and mealworms. It's amazing to see that our students here in Hawaii so prepared and so brilliant. Maybe let's have our first slide up so we can see. We can see. Okay. So basically, you send me a figure when you came here. Basically, the amount of plastic waste which is produced in the US is about 33.6 million tons per year. What happens to this waste? So, as you can see on the diagram, this is plastic waste. And then on the side, at first, only 6.5 is recycled, which is plastic bottles or like other plastic that is able to be recycled. The one we throw in the recycling box. But then not a lot of people recycle and not a lot of people go through this process. And then the rest of it, which is 7.7% is used for electricity production. But that's only some type of plastics that is able to be burned into electricity production. So we burn it, we make heat and then we can produce electricity. Yeah. But then the rest of that 33.6 million tons goes into our planet and goes into our oceans, goes into landfills and then slowly they sink down and then they cause harm to our planet. And then, and so basically, your science project you mentioned is trying to find a solution for decomposing and recycling this plastic. Yes. So maybe let's see our next picture here so we can have a look. Oh, wow. I remember when my, when my grandfather was going fishing. Yeah. So actually, waxworms are actually used in fish bait. So they are used for fishermen by it from companies. And then they use it to fish for fish. But then in this case here, I took waxworms and I just I used research from Stanford University. Originally, they found that waxworms have the ability to digest polyethylene, which is plastic bags. Yeah. The basic polymer used in making plastic bags. And then on the other side, we have mealworms, which is used for pet food. You fit, you feed birds or like iguanas mealworms. But then in this case, I took mealworms and from the Institute of Biomedical and Biotechnology of Cantabria, a Spanish professor. Oh, excuse me. It's the other way around. Oh, the Spanish professor experimented with waxworms and Stanford University experimented with mealworms. Yeah. So how did you, so this is what you did for your science project at the state of Hawaii Science and Engineering here. Yes. How did you get interested at Stevenson Middle School about this big problem that we're facing? Yes. So Hawaii has recently had its plastic ban, and which meant that we were producing too much plastic bags and we were disposing too much of it. And recently they took a bill and they said that we can only use recyclable bags once with fabric or like reusable plastic. So then I was wondering why we were, we needed to have this bill. And I didn't realize that how much plastic we were having in our world. And after research, I was able to find the articles about mealworms and waxworms. And then it just got me started on how to design my own experiment to see how waxworms and mealworms can digest these plastics. Where did you get these worms? So at first Petco was out of the worms. So apparently I was in the fair actually, and then a judge told me that a senior division project had was working with mealworms and waxworms too. And I was like, he took all my worms. That's why they were out of it. So I had to go online to order from another company in California. And then they shipped me the worms after like three weeks. Wow, I didn't know we could buy worms online. Yeah. Yeah. So let's have your next slide up so we can see actually what you did. So okay, can you tell me what this is? So actually the polystyrene is the one on the right. Yeah, that is styrofoam. And styrofoam is used in takeout containers or styrofoam cups or styrofoam plates. We use it every day. So this is material that we use every day. And the other one is the plastic bags that we use. So we use it for grocery shopping or like carrying things. And because of our increase in using these items, there's been a problem which is plastic pollution. Yeah. Yeah. So these are the, if you want the ingredients of your science project, right? Yeah. So what did you do with them? So using my worms, I have the waxworms and the mealworms. The waxworms, I introduced them to polyethylene and polystyrene. And then the same with the mealworms. At first, through my research, I found that the waxworms are only able to digest polyethylene, which is plastic bags. So you basically, you put them together, the plastic material with the worms as well, the two species. Yes. And I believe we have a picture about this. Yes. Let us see. Oh, okay. So this is the container you used. Yeah. Okay. So it's a Petri dish. Inside the Petri dish, there's polystyrene, which is styrofoam. And then there's waxworms and mealworms. Yeah. We're looking at the two species. Yeah. Yeah. And in this Petri dish, I have 20 worms, 10 waxworms and 10 mealworms. And then I have 3000 milligrams of polystyrene and 1000 milligrams of moisture. So what I did was, after I found out the similarities in the bacteria in these worms that are able to digest plastic. So the bacteria are in the intestine of the worm, the gut of the worms. Oh, okay. Yeah. So then I found similarities in the bacterias and I found that they're able to digest plastic using enzyme reactions. And actually on our next slide, it shows the bacterias. Yeah. So this is waxworms. And inside waxworms, there's two types of bacterias. The first is the intobacteria aspera yt1, yp1. That's the one in the corner right, top corner right. Yeah. And then there's basillus, spyp1. And these two work together to form an enzyme reaction. And it's part of the glycoside hydrolase enzyme reaction family. And they what they do is they take the water from the moisture strip, and they take the plastic that they're chewing. And then they work together to make the plastic into glucose, which is for the worms to digest as nutrients. And then they excrete it out as organic compost. That's amazing. So these worms basically are eating and digesting the plastics, which you put them in contact with. And thanks to the moisture, water or humidity of the environment. Yeah. Yeah. So how, how long do they take to eat the plastics? Because they're tiny. Yeah. So waxworms for my project in specific, I used them in the peachy dish for 10 days, which is 240 hours. And per 24 hours, I measured them and weighed the changes to see how they were decreasing the mass of the plastics. So you waited the plastic? Okay. So after the 10 days that I experimented with 400 milligrams decreased in group E, which was the peachy dish that was shown for the, for the pictures on the slides. And in group E, they were able to digest the 400 milligrams out of 3000. So mathematically, that's actually they're digesting at twice their own body size per 24 hours, which was a very fast rate compared to the thousands of thousands of years that plastic go under through our environment that's still harming the environment. While hungry. Yeah. Well, this one, they're not harming the environment, but they're going through a natural process in their gut to dispose of these plastics. And you mentioned that what is the final product, I guess, from the worms after they digested it, the waste if you want. Yeah. So the final product, I believe we have a picture here. So this is the picture. And as you can see, that's polystyrene. Yeah. And on the polystyrene, there's brown spots. And that's the feces that they excreted after. And you see that the brown spots, but the brown spot is not toxic or anything. Yeah, it's not harmful to organic, which means it can be used as compost or fertilizer, just like any other animal feces, they're able to decompose into the soil much easier than plastic and much faster than plastic. And it's not harmful in any way. This is the piece of plastic basically that was chewed by all these worms. Okay. So which is the worms that was eating this, this plastics the fastest? So the wax worms were actually eating the plastic plastics the fastest. So they were the big eaters. Yeah. So before my project, I am scientists had confirmed that wax worms are able to digest polyethylene. But then after my project, I had discovered that wax worms are not only able to digest polyethylene, but also polystyrene. So they're able to digest both plastic bags and styrofoam. So that's the discovery that's the that's the what made you win second place at the junior division of the state science and engineering fair this year. Yeah. So thank you, Zoe. And we're going to take a break and we're going to learn more about Zoys and her research at Stevenson Middle School. We'll be back soon. I'm Ethan Allen, host of likeable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2pm. I hope you'll join me for likeable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun. Why science is interesting. Why people should care about science and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for likeable science. He gets to go in. He's a surface dog. I could get a service too. You're not even a service dog. He's trained to assist his owner. I can do whatever he can do. Wow. Did he just open the door? Yep. Oh, I can't do that. I can't do that either. He's trained for over two years to become a service dog. Man, I wish I could be a service dog. And we're back we're live. This is young talents making way here on Think Tech. We're talking about munching plastic. Yes with Zoe Dawn from Stevenson Middle School. So we learned from you that worms actually can eat the plastics can help us digest and decompose this plastic which is making harm to our environment and everything. You are but I learned from you that you're also going to the international science sphere as an observer. Yes. So what are you going to do there? So the international science fair is in Pittsburgh this year. And I'm going as a junior observer. So it's from May 13th to May 18th. And what we do there is as a junior I can't really compete. Right. But I'm able to follow some of our Hawaii's finalists around as they compete for awards in the international science fair. And I can learn from them while they're presenting. And next year in high school and in senior division I'm able to try and compete in our own Honolulu district fair than the state fair. And if I'm able then I get to go to ISEF again and taking experiments experience from this year's ISEF I can use it for next year's state fairs and international fairs. It's so exciting. So does that mean the worms are going to eat more plastics? Yeah. So I'm planning to continue my project because there's so much to do with the worms. And the worms are only just one little step because I've mentioned before we use bacterias inside the worms. What I want to do is I want to isolate the bacteria strain and only use the bacteria and culture it to make it into a more easier way to solve the plastic pollution. Because worms those worms aren't because before as I mentioned they're used for fish bait. And we have a the great Pacific garbage patch in our Pacific Ocean right now. So that's a big floating chunk of plastic switches. Yeah. So that plastic patch is as big as the size of Texas. And the worms we can't just dump worms onto the patch onto the patch and just let them go at it. But instead we can use just how like scientists are using microbes for oil spills. We can do the same for bacterias and we can use the bacterias for the plastic patch instead of the worms. It's going to be interesting to actually see whether the bacteria are going to be faster than the worms in consuming the plastic. Yeah. Yeah. So next year it's going to be exciting then. Yeah. But where are you going for high school then? I was able to get accepted into two private schools Punahou and Iolani. Oh wow. But I'm not sure which one I will choose yet. You need to figure that out. Yeah. But I think both are great schools and whatever I go I'll continue this project and I should be able to expand on this year's experience to next year. And I hope my high school will be able to help me with that as well. With learning especially for the international science fair upcoming. Yeah. Absolutely. So we had the state here in Hawaii science and engineering fair last week Friday and Saturday. Yes. You were there and you won second place at the junior division for this exciting project. And what did you learn there. So it was great to see a lot of different science fair experiments just like I did. And I was in biochemistry which is a category and I was able to compete in that category with some other projects. It was fascinating to see how my neighboring projects and what they did with their experiments. And I was able to learn from the first place winner which was a student from Hilo actually. Oh wow. And he what he did was he did wireless power transfer even though it's in a totally different category. I'm fascinated by robotics as well. So I was able to talk to him and get to know him better. And we were able to talk about our experiments. And I made a lot of new friends at the state science fair. And it was a great experience. What about the judges. Oh the. Did they you know make you constructed feedback you learn from them as well or. Yeah. So the judges were great help actually. They told me what I could improve with my worms and what I what I can do more up with them. And they actually told me another way to use the bacteria as a solution for plastic. They one of the judges told me that what we can do is we can extract the plasmid from the bacteria. So basically like the DNA or the DNA. Yeah. Bacteria and we can create genetically modified organisms to have more of these different types of worms. So instead of having wax worms we can find a more thermal stable or water resistant worm that is more able to adapt to different environments. We can use it to cross breed and create genetically modified organisms just like how we're doing with vegetables or fruits. We can create these worms and they're also they'll also be able to have the ability to digest different types of plastic. You're going to get a PhD. Because this sounds like a lot of experiments because you want to make sure this can work. Actually it can help to reduce the plastic impact on the state of Hawaii and the world as well. Yeah. Have you thought of calculating basically how many worms would be needed or how many bacteria. How could you actually implement this in a from an industrial point of view and trying to actually reduce the impact of plastics. Yes. So as I said before they were eating at a twice their own body size and I had 20 of them and 20 of them were able to digest 400 milligrams in 10 days. And if a lot of other companies are already mass breeding these worms for fish bait or for pet food what we can do is do the same and we can use these worms to industrialize it and we can use it to solve plastic if we have it in mass amount of groups. But that needs calculation and we still I still haven't figured out how exactly much would take to dispose of the great Pacific garbage patch that we'll have in our Pacific Ocean right now. But that will be something that we can do later on as I progress with my project. Absolutely. And so this is absolutely fascinating. It's great that we have solutions to this big plastic problem but now the solution of course needs to be implemented and that's up to all of us to actually you know implement these solutions as well. You mentioned earlier that we had a break and we were talking a little bit and you mentioned Zoe your teacher at Stevenson Middle School. I believe she won some awards at the science fair as well. Yes. So my teacher is Julia Segawa Mrs. Segawa. Hi Julia. Well although she wasn't able to make it today but she is been helping me through this process and helping me with my worms and everything. So she was also able to win some awards along with me and she won teacher awards. So. Wow. So she accompanied me with. She made a good job. Yeah. She accompanied me with to the science fair and she was able to win first place in teacher awards for the Queen Emma biochemistry category and along with me she was able to go up with me to receive the grand prize second place award as a teacher. So yeah. Wow. Lots of bright bright minds here but she didn't make it today but we have here you have a audience of supporters. We have Pamela Kohara here from the state of Hawaii Department of Education. She's a STEM teacher and then I believe we have your auntie down there. Hello. Hi auntie. So this is at this is absolutely exciting in all these science projects as well. Now have you been at the fair being at this exciting event. Have you had a chance also to get engaged to talk to the community to a broader audience because on Sunday we had open doors so people could walk in and see how was your experience for that. So people I guess my question might be phrased as are people aware about this problem in Hawaii what's your view on that. So actually I think people before I was doing this project I didn't realize how much plastic we were discarding every day and although we use it we don't really necessarily we're not grateful for it and we don't know what happens to it after. I mean only like a small percentage of that plastic is being recycled and not a lot of people recycle. So after my project I was I was seeing how much exactly plastics were there in our oceans in the landfills and during public visitation day and I had a lot of people look at my board and talk to me and one of the professors at UH Manoa he was able to give me some suggestions and I think that was a way for me to spread awareness for plastic pollution in our world and eventually after talking to a lot of people they're aware of the plastic pollution in our world as well. So using this experiment and using this project I hope to tell a lot of people about how plastic is such a big problem in our world and how you can help to reduce the amount of plastic we use just like how we had the plastic bag ban in Hawaii. We continue doing that or like continue reducing your waste and recycling your bottles after use and that's a way for you to help the in-planet in fighting plastic pollution. What are the top three suggestions that you would give to our audience today? So the first one because my worms use plastic bags and Styrofoam. The first is to follow up with the plastic ban ban in Hawaii so use recyclable plastics plastic bags use fabric bags as much as possible and then the second is recycle although it's a small amount we can still make a difference recycle just after you drink a water bottle recycle it put it in the recycle bin and they'll be able to reduce the amount of plastics that go into our landfill and then the third is talk to people about plastic pollution not a lot of people are aware that plastic pollution is a very big problem but if you spread it through words spread it through this show and spread it through other places we're able to reduce the amount of plastic that we're using in our world. Thank you Zoe thank you I'm always amazed that you know how bright our students here in Hawaii are thank you very much Zoe for coming here today thank you and so this is young talents making way here on think tech Hawaii. We talk about the things that really matter to the future to our future here here in Hawaii and we do it with our very very bright students thank you very much Zoe for coming here today thank you thank you thank you.