Making the unrecyclable recyclable | Ashton Cofer | TEDxColumbusAcademy

Every year, Americans throw away almost two billion pounds of polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, which fills up our nation’s landfills. But what if we could prevent Styrofoam from being sent to the landfill by turning it into something useful? In this talk, Ashton Cofer speaks about his perseverance to find a way to convert Styrofoam waste into activated carbon for purifying water.

Ashton Cofer is a 9th grader at Columbus Academy. He is passionate about science and technology. He also enjoys playing soccer, tennis and snowboarding. Ashton Cofer has received several awards for his science project, including being a winner of the 2016 Google Science Fair. In addition to this, Ashton teaches robotics to kids in the Columbus area, and his robotics team has won international competitions around the world. He also plays the saxophone. His favorite activities, though, are to hang out with friends and go snowboarding or paintballing.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

It was just an ordinary Saturday.

My dad was outside mowing the lawn,

my mom was upstairs folding laundry,

my sister was in her room doing homework,

and I was in the basement
playing video games.

And as I came upstairs
to get something to drink,

I looked out the window

and realized that there was something
I was supposed to be doing.

And this is what I saw.

No, this wasn't
my family's dinner on fire.

This was my science project.

Flames were pouring out,
smoke was in the air,

and it looked like our wooden deck
was about to catch fire.

I immediately started yelling.

My mom was freaking out,
my dad ran around to put out the fire,

and, of course, my sister started
recording a Snapchat video.

(Laughter)

This was just the beginning
of my team’s science project.

My team is composed
of me and three of my friends.

We competed in FIRST LEGO League,

which is an international
LEGO robotics competition for kids.

And, in addition to a robotics game,

we also worked
on a separate science project,

and this was the project
that we were working on.

So, the idea for this project all started

when a few months earlier

a couple of my teammates
went to Central America

and saw beaches littered with Styrofoam,

or expanded polystyrene foam.

And when they came back
and told us about it,

we really started thinking about the ways
in which we use Styrofoam every day.

Get a new flat-screen TV?

You end up with a block of Styrofoam
bigger than the TV itself.

Drink a cup of coffee?

Well, those Styrofoam coffee cups
are sure going to add up.

And where do all these items go
after their one-time use?

Since there aren't any good
existing solutions for used Styrofoam,

almost all of it ends up
right in the landfill,

or the oceans and beaches,

taking over 500 years to degrade.

In fact, every year,

the US alone produces
almost two billion pounds of Styrofoam,

filling up a staggering
25 percent of landfills.

So why do we have these gross
accumulations of Styrofoam waste?

Why can't we just recycle it
like other plastics?

Well, simply put,

recycled polystyrene is too expensive
and potentially contaminated,

so there is very little market demand
for Styrofoam that has been recycled.

And, as a result, Styrofoam
is considered a non-renewable material

because it is neither feasible
nor viable to recycle.

And, in fact, many cities across the US
have recently passed ordinances

that ban the sale of many products
containing polystyrene,

which includes disposable utensils,
packing peanuts, Styrofoam cups,

and even plastic beach toys -

all products that are
very useful in today's society.

And now France
has become the first country

to permanently ban
all plastic utensils, cups and plates.

But ... wait a minute.

What if we could keep using these products

and keep benefiting
from their cheap, lightweight,

insulating and excellent packing ability,

while not having to suffer

from the repercussions
of having to dispose of them?

What if we could turn it
into something else

that's actually useful?

What if we can make
the impossible possible?

My team hypothesized

that we could use the carbon
that's already in Styrofoam

to create activated carbon,

which is used in almost
every water filter today.

And activated carbon works
by using very small micropores

to filter out contaminants
from water, or even air.

So we started out by doing
a variety of heating tests.

And, unfortunately, we had many failures.

Literally nothing worked.

Besides my dad's grill catching on fire,

most of our samples
vaporized into nothing

or exploded inside expensive furnaces
leaving a horribly sticky mess.

In fact, we were so saddened
by our failures that we almost gave up.

So why did we keep trying

when all the adults said
it was impossible?

Well, maybe it's because we were kids:
we don't know any better.

But the truth is we kept trying

because we thought it was still possible.

We knew that if we were successful,

we will be helping the environment
and making the world a better place.

So we kept trying ... and failing,

and trying ... and failing.

We were so ready to give up.

But then it happened.

With the right times,
temperatures and chemicals,

we finally got that successful test result

showing us that we had created
activated carbon from Styrofoam waste.

And at that moment,

the thing that had been impossible
all of a sudden wasn't.

It showed us that although we had
many failures at the beginning,

we were able to persevere through them
to get the test results that we wanted.

And, moreover,

not only were we able to create
activated carbon from Styrofoam waste,

but we were also able to reduce Styrofoam

solving two global problems
with just one solution.

So from then on, we were inspired
to take our project further,

performing more tests
to make it more effective

and testing it in real world situations.

We then proceeded to receive funding

from the NSTA's eCYBERMISSION
STEM-in-Action program

sponsored by the US Army,

as well as FIRST Global Innovation Awards
sponsored by XPRIZE.

We were also honored

with the Scientific American
Innovator Award

from Google Science Fair.

And using these funds, we plan
to file a full patent on our process

and to continue to develop our project.

So, yes, although we started
with catching my dad's grill on fire

and failing so many times
that we almost quit,

it was well worth it
when we look back at it now.

We took a problem
that many people said was impossible

and we made it possible.

And we persevered when it looked
like nothing that we did would work.

We learned that you can't have success

without a little
... or a lot ... of failure.

So in the future, don't be afraid
if your grill goes up in flames,

because you never know
when your ideas might just catch fire.

Thank you.

(Applause)