Pupils versus pollution
STUDENTS are trying to find a solution to the pollution posed by disposable contact lenses.
Haslingden High School and Sixth Form’s Serena Cape and Madeleine Jackson, both 16 and A level students, have been seeking a scientific solution to the problem of contact lenses, proposed by an Optometrist from the University of Manchester.
As a wearer herself, Madeleine has a personal reason for finding a better way to dispose of lenses and is concerned about their environmental impact.
Working in partnership with Bolton School Boys’ Division, the two schools shared a research grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry to pay for the study and they all travelled to the Royal Society in London to present their initial findings.
There were 20 schools at the Royal Society and they had all been looking into different projects and gave a critique of each others work.
Madeleine said: “One student said that plastic bags were a bigger issue than contact lenses so I explained that there are 200,000kg of contact lenses being dumped into the ocean each year.”
Under the supervision of chemistry technician Emily Slinger, the students have been trying different chemicals to try to break down the lenses into a solution that can be safely disposed of down the drain.
The tricky aspect is, for obvious reasons, lens manufacturers do not want their products to be easily broken down.
Serena said: “It is important to find a product that works, that is already readily available in people’s homes.”
In the afternoon their work was scrutinised by Fellows of the Royal Society who asked about their research and also made suggestions.