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Three local secondary school students recently won top prize in the 07-08 Hong Kong Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition with a simple process to turn waste edible oil into crayons, while three girls won “Best Project on Show” and “Future Star” awards for junior secondary students with a project that replaces chemical preservatives with natural alternatives such as onion, jasmine flower and honey in bread.
The waste oil recycling experiment, designed and successfully tried out by three senior students from the Kwun Tong Kung Lok Government Secondary School, was selected by an expert panel as winner of first prize in the chemistry and material science category and “Best Project on Show” honor for senior secondary students. The three prize winners are Wong Siu-foh, Tam Hung-hom and Tai Kam-lung.
Tam, who has muscular dystrophy and is now wheelchair ridden, said after accepting the awards with the help of his partners Wong and Tai he had not expected to win prizes and was very happy.
He told reporters he and his two classmates decided to work on the waste oil recycling project because they knew China generates a lot of waste edible oil every year, which adds to environmental pollution and wanted to find a way to recycle it.
They first used caustic soda to turn filtered waste oil into soap and then heat it in salt water to turn it into oil coagulant, which can be used as crayon when mixed with coloring materials such as ink and dye.
Chung Kei-hon, Tsui Yuo-wing and Chan Chi-tung, whose research into natural preservatives for bakery products won several awards in the junior secondary student category, said their idea came from concern about the harmful effects on humans from chemical preservatives.
They admitted they all love bakery products such as bread and felt worried after learning that the usual preservatives used in mass-produced bread can cause insomnia and allergy in some people while remain effective only for seven days. ■春生 資深翻譯員
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