Three 16-year-olds from India won a major youth environmental award with a water-cleaning powder created from tamarind seeds that would otherwise be discarded.
According to Ecoticias, it's called Plas-Stick. The invention is added to water to gather tiny plastic pieces into clumps, letting users pull them out with a handheld magnet instead of relying on electricity or complicated filters.
What happened?
After voting on May 29 drew about 23,000 ballots across seven regional champions, Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal, and Avyana Mehta became the first team from India to claim The Earth Prize's global top honor.
A visit to a rural community, where families kept drinking water in shared plastic containers, led the students to focus on a cheap way to deal with hard-to-see plastic contamination. They wanted something that could work in places without access to advanced water-treatment technology.
Its base ingredient is tamarind seeds that would otherwise be thrown away, turned into a biodegradable powder that responds to magnets. In water, that powder binds to microplastics and gathers them into visible clumps that can be removed with a small magnet.
The team first won the Asia category, earning $12,500 to continue development, before going on to take the global prize. Organizers say The Earth Prize supports students ages 13 to 19 and distributes $100,000 in shared funding.
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Why does it matter?
Microplastics are tiny plastic fragments or fibers, often too small to see, that can form as larger plastics break down. A tool that can help remove them from water cheaply and simply could make daily life easier in communities where expensive filtration systems are out of reach.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF said in 2025 that 2.1 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water. Not all of those households face the same microplastic issue.
The invention is aimed at one specific problem rather than every source of unsafe water. It is meant to collect microplastics, not to address bacteria, viruses, or every other contaminant that can make water dangerous.
It would need to work alongside broader water treatment rather than replace it.
What's being done?
The students have already shared the idea in workshops and demonstrations that reached more than 8,000 students and teachers. Dr. Rajesh Khandelwal advised the team as they refined testing and development, helping move the project closer to real-world application.
The group plans to create decentralized production hubs and expand into rural communities across India. If successful, that approach could cut transportation needs, turn agricultural waste into something valuable, and create a more practical local supply model.
Still, more work is needed before Plas-Stick could be considered a proven household solution. Public information released with the award does not include detailed independent test results, and public materials do not spell out removal rates, the particle sizes captured, or whether any residue remains in the water.
There are other ways to cut plastic pollution, including choosing plastic-free options like reusable mugs and shopping bags.
The students said they hope the win will "help us scale Plas-Stick further," and Peter McGarry, founder of The Earth Foundation, called the project "scientifically grounded, environmentally responsible and accessible."
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