Three students from the Escola Secundária Júlio Dinis, in Ovar, will represent Portugal in a scientific contest in China between August 21 and 26 with a project on the biodegradation of plastics using larvae.
The Youth Foundation announced this Thursday that the “Larvae: plague or solution” project, already awarded at the National Science Exhibition, will represent Portugal in the CASTIC – Science and Technology Innovation Contest for Adolescents in China.
The project, developed by André Silva, Carolina Leite and Lara Pereira, tests the biodegradability of plastics and polystyrene foam using mealworms and wax moth larvae, species best known for “being able to represent pests for cereals, products stored or bee hives”.
The two species of larvae “showed potential for more rapid degradation of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) and various types of plastic (synthetic, recycled, and biodegradable), potentially opening up new ways of dealing with these highly concentrated, slow-decomposing materials.” in the environment”. says a statement from the Youth Foundation.
Quoted in the statement, the student André Leite, highlights that the presence in this international competition demonstrates “the quality of the project, as well as the trust that the jury placed” in the young people to represent Portugal.
“In the National Contest for Young Scientists and in the National Science Exhibition, with the contribution of schools, teachers and national institutions, we see that young people are increasingly better prepared to contribute to a future in which scientific knowledge represents progress and in which the power of ideas helps to solve very specific problems, such as those that arise in terms of the environment and sustainability”, stated the president of Fundación Juventud, Carla Mouro.
Organized by the Chinese Association for Science and Technology and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the 37th edition of CASTIC takes place in Wuhan and hosts scientific projects from different areas, bringing together more than 500 Chinese students and a hundred international participants.
Source: TSF
