A plan to recycle the unrecyclable | Ashton Cofer

From packing peanuts to disposable coffee cups, each year the US alone produces some two billion pounds of Styrofoam -- none of which can be recycled. Frustrated by this waste of resources and landfill space, Ashton Cofer and his science fair teammates developed a heating treatment to break down used Styrofoam into something useful. Check out their original design, which won both the FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation Award and the Scientific American Innovator Award from Google Science Fair.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more.

[MaximusXavier]

My only concern is what this might put into the air. I think that this is an amazing first step, but we need to make sure that this won't do more harm than good, but fantastic work. :)

[ricardocerrillo]

How impressive! I've wondered countless times about Styrofoam's recyling possibilities and here these young people have succeeded! A very Well Done is in order.

[MaZe]

and then you learn his father is a chemist with three PHDs

[connerrose]

That kid is impressive! He and his partners are the kind of people that others should look up to.

[waynebow-guwr]

I love this kids passion and drive . I to bashed my head up against the wall back it 2000 trying to get my polystyrene recycling idea out there. My idea was for businesses to reduce it on site in a 44 gallon drum of solvent. It would be collected once a week and taken back to the recycling plant and turned into road side poles. I got a team together, got a backer, and teamed up with company ( run by a world famous engineer, who I wont name ), and things were on their way. Alas... the man died and everything stopped. I decided to show people how to turn it into a decoupage gloss sealer and put it on youtube ( along with my clay coke bottle vase instructions). This was iback in January 2015. Here it is December 2018 and I've had approx. 200 views. So here I am again having another go at trying to show the world how they can safely recycle their own waste polystyrene into a free flowing paint and gloss using gum turpentine. For more info click on the logo.

[ryanholden]

People have been able to recycle styrofoam/EPS for years now. The waste styrofoam gets put into a 'briquetter' then of to a facility where they pelletise it, then re process into new styrofoam products.

[清水航平-no]

What a great speech this is!!
I was impressed very much. :)

[randyj]

It has to be separated in order to be recycled. Still LOTS of people not recycling their styrofoam. Styrofoam is still used way too often for take out food that doesn't need to be hot if it's just leftovers.

[keet]

He's gonna change the weed growing industry before he's ever touched a joint, cool kid!

[gdove]

sad thing is production companies of these products already know this stuff they just don't care

[sitinurafifahramli]

really good work. hope to see more on this research.

[jaredsmith]

But what are they going to do with all the emissions caused by burning the styrofoam?

[finalninja]

Styrofoam is starting to be replaced with bio-based alternatives.

[nicolealaniz]

How wonderful it is to see greatness in our young people. I'm lucky to be a witness.

[KnowArt]

how does it work!??!!?!? THAT'S what we want to know of course!

[QusaiNsour]

Seriously, this is one in a million Ted talks ... good job you little man.

[araincs]

It would literally make more sense to just burn styrofoam for the energy content than do all this elaborate crap to make a product the demand of which will be so so much lower than the supply of waste styrofoam. I mean styrofoam is basically plastic and plastic has the same energy content as oil so it was be burned easily for power production. Also I wouldnt want activated charcoal made from styrofoam which as he himself says is potentially contaminated with other things, when that charcoal will be near my drinking water. Also I very much doubt it'll be cheaper to make charcoal this way rather than just out of wood which is a renewable resource anyway.

[Sapphire]

An excellent presentatiom and idea!! Bravo!

[jordannoell]

This sounds very promising, but the fact that he did not go into any detail into how it is actually done makes me highly skeptical that this is actually a sustainable solution.

[zakariyemohamed]

My first impression is this: it may sound like a genius idea but if you know anything about chemistry you might surmise that the only way to make activated carbon from Styrofoam involves burning it. High temperatures under a vacuum. The good part: no smoke. The bad part: all the smoke that would have been is now gas. Lots and lots of greenhouse gases created. This process isn't new. It's been around for over 100 years. It works on almost anything that is made of carbon. From wood, to roadkill. Basically anything that is biological in origin. Including petroleum products. Truly, the only answer is to use far less Styrofoam. Anybody can burn waste and make. It look like an achievement to people who have no knowledge of chemistry