TIP engineering students' project to turn flour into edible cutlery wins in Swiss innovation contest

Six students from the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) bagged a 2023  Swiss Innovation Prize for their proposal to turn flour into  “edible cutleries” to help address the country’s plastic pollution problem.

The “Edgetec” team led by Stanley del  Rosario, a 4th year civil engineering student, took third place in the sustainability category for their entry, a research paper proposing the possibility of using flour in making consumable utensils that could replace single-use plastics.

The other team members are Elyza Marielle Camiguing and Amiel Salvania (3rd Year, Electronics Engineering), Emmanuelle Dave Santos and Faron Jabez Nonan (2nd Year, Computer Engineering), and John Paul Fernandez (4th Year, Civil Engineering).

The paper titled “Edible Cutleries with Biodegradable Packaging as an Alternative to Single-Used Plastics” was part of their coursework for their Tech 101 Engineering and Entrepreneurship class.

Del Rosario said one of their goals in pursuing the topic is to raise awareness on plastic pollution, adding that data from the  Plastic Bank showed the Philippines is one of the leading contributors of plastics in the ocean.

“With a simple product like ‘edible cutleries,’ we believe it can be a sustainable solution to lessen our need for single-use plastics… It won’t cause a problem to the community, especially for marine animals, because even if they ingest it, it is safe,” Del Rosario explained.

“We don’t have the discipline to dispose and segregate our plastic products properly. The Philippines doesn’t [even] have a strong and concrete Waste Management Plan. All these things need to be addressed because it is putting our future generations in danger,” Del Rosario said.

The Embassy of Switzerland in the Philippines launched and organized the competition in partnership with the Swiss Cultural Fund and the Swiss Chamber of Commerce to support “new ideas that have the potential to drive economic growth and improve society.”

The winning TIP students received a trophy and a P30,000 cash prize during an awards ceremony held in Makati last November.—RF, GMA Integrated News