A new material made from fish waste that can be utilized as a type of plastic has the potential to solve two huge worldwide problems simultaneously. It was invented by a British student named Lucy Hughes, and it earned her the internationally recognized James Dyson Award. Her MarinaTex bioplastic is a strong, translucent and flexible alternative for single-use packaging that breaks down quickly and easily.

The material was developed as part of Lucy’s final year project at the University of Sussex. She was determined to prove that you could utilise a waste product to create a sustainable plastic alternative. She ran hundreds of experiments to refine the bioplastic mixture, whilst using only the kitchen stove in her student accommodations. The final product takes little energy to produce, and it is estimated that the waste from just one cod fish is enough to produce 1,000 MarinaTex bags. If this proves to be true on a large scale of production then it could revolutionize the planet’s plastic problem. There are over 500,000 tons of fish waste per year in the UK alone, so on a worldwide basis the supply for making MarinaTex would be virtually endless.