A young award-winning Co Cork inventor says the only way climate change can be tackled is if more people are inspired through education to care about the environment and are encouraged to come up with creative solutions.
A Google Global Grand Prize winner and more recently a recipient of a European Inventors Award, Fionn Ferreira, a chemistry masters student from Ballydehob in west Cork, recently patented his novel method of removing microplastic particles from water.
According to the United Nations, there are more than 51 trillion microplastic particles in the seas, 500 times more than the number of stars in our galaxy.
The global crisis of plastic waste accumulation has deeply affected and inspired the 22-year-old.
Speaking near his home in west Cork, he said growing up by the sea he noticed increasing amounts of plastic washing up along the coastline.
This bothered him greatly and he decided he was going to try to come up with a solution.
Fionn said: "There are so many microplastic 'wells' (along the coastline) where microplastics are brought in (by the sea).
"Almost everywhere you look you see many, many tiny fibres ... just here you can see this one minuscule fibre from a rope.
"That is plastic and that is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, which will eventually be ingested by organisms."
His innovative method of removing microplastics from water has been described as simple yet effective.
He uses a magnetic liquid mixture, which binds to microplastic particles to separate them from water, allowing for their removal using magnets.
His latest prototype removed over 85% of microplastics and can be used safely in drinking water.
The west Cork man is currently working with the University of Texas to scale his invention for use commercially in areas such as water treatment plants and large-scale water outflow points.
Fionn believes that while his invention is a solution, it is not the only solution to the plastics problem in the world's oceans.
"What I do think is that the major thing we need to try is to stop letting plastics get into the water in the first place.
"We can only achieve that by trying to eliminate single use plastics, change policies around plastics, and make plastic breakdown and degrade a lot quicker," he said.
"But also, we need to value every single creative idea from all those amazing minds out there," he added.
