Norwich student hopes cardboard tent will reduce impact of festivals
Judges were spellbound by Lily Mai Spinks ISOPOD creation, a waterproof cardboard tent with a concertina design
A Norwich sixth form student hopes her cardboard tent invention will help reduce the impact of festivals, as the summer season is well underway.
Judges were spellbound by Lily Mai Spinks ISOPOD creation, a waterproof cardboard tent with a concertina design.
She's been given the Big Banh Young Scientists and Engineers Award in recognition.
She told us: "I was just shocked, I couldn't quite believe it. It was just so surreal. I entered the competition just on the off chance to see where it might go.
"I didn't expect it to get past the first round, so for it to get this far, I was so shocked".
"So I wanted to come up with a sustainable alternative"
The 17 year old hopes it will one day become the alternative to the seas of plastic tents left at festivals every year: "It's estimated that around 250 thousand tents are left each year at every festival and each tent can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade.
"The impact this must be having on our environment is huge, so I wanted to come up with a sustainable alternative. Hence I came up with the cardboard and completely biodegrade design.
"I quite like the simplicity of the design, it's just a single sheet of cardboard that's been folded up to a dome shape, like a hedgehog. It has that simple yet striking look I think it's very unique, you wouldn't see anything like this on the shelves, I don't think."
"There's a lot of drive in young people now to roll up our sleeves and get on with it"
She says her generation are taking the climate crisis into their own hands: "Young people are looking at environmentally friendly projects and that's really interesting because at the end of the day, it's going to be our planet to look after.
"So looking at ways we can reduce the impact of what we are doing now. There's a lot of drive in young people now to roll up our sleeves and get on with it".