Elif Bilgin entered the 2013 Google Science Fair with a ambitious goal - she wanted to develop a method of turning banana peels into bioplastic. Her motivation was the large amount of pollution caused by the use of plastics in her home city of Istanbul. She decided on banana peels after deciding on using a base material that was completely waste.
There are a few videos online that show Elif's method of creating plastic. The official Google Science Fair video is stylized and polished but still explains the process well. Banana selection was important at the beginning of production - bananas had to be the same size with no bruises and exist in the same color index.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMR-oMpCbjo
Peels are dipped in sodium metabisulfite solution before being boiled and pureed. The resulting paste is molded into a petri dish and heated. Twelve iterations of the plastic process were performed and the last two attempts were successful in creating a bioplastic product.
Bilgin is targeting cosmetic prosthetics and cable insulation for her plastics. Her biggest sense of accomplishment comes from the fact that the new material might be used in place of petroleum based plastics. A fortunate side effect is that Elif is now extremely skilled at making banana cupcakes and banana splits.
In 2013 Elif Bilgin won the Science in Action award from Scientific American, for making a practical difference by addressing an environmental challenge. The award also appreciates projects that are innovative, easy to put into action and reproducible in other communities.
This is a great inspirational story about engineering and the development of new products, but the story feels unfinished. This bioplastic application isn't much different than the materials constructed from potatoes or mango peels and the technology transfer to widespread use is the next problem to tackle.