GreenHome at the 2015 Trash Trek Challenge

GREEN HOME’s founder and MD, Catherine Morris, spoke at the 2015 Trash Trek Challenge held in Cape Town. This is a international challenge for children from the ages of 9 – 16 to look at all the issues around waste and come up with solutions in various different ways.

There were a wide range of interesting activities available for children to look at trash from many different angles.

Some children were challenged to design an efficient home composting system.
Some children were programming robots
Some were involved in a game designed to make them think about how to get plastic out of the ocean
Some were looking at various uses for methane gas
Some were looking at how to clean up all balloons and make bouncy balls out of them

GREEN HOME was invited to speak about reducing trash. We introduced the concept of compostable food packaging and food packaging made from plant materials.

The children working with designing home composting systems conducted an experiment with our plastic bags made from plant based raw materials.
1. They got a PLA and a wood cellulose bag sample from GREEN HOME
2. They put green waste into them
3. They put green waste into a plastic ice cream tub with a lid
4. They waited one week

Can you guess the result?
The compost in the ice cream tub stank! The compostables had started to biodegrade and then rot releasing a big stink.

But the compostables in the GREEN HOME bags smelt fine. Because the bags are breathable, the compost was able to remain aerated. This meant it hadn’t started to rot. Instead it had started biodegrading and composting and smelt exactly how compost should smell. Fantastic!

The experiment continues. They have added the contents to their home made compost bins. We will see what the results are in a few weeks…