Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta developed Plas-Stick, a biodegradable powder made from discarded tamarind seeds that helps remove microplastics from water

For most people, a discarded tamarind seed is simply something that gets thrown away. For three 16-year-old students from India, it became the starting point for a very different idea: finding a simple way to remove microplastics from water.

Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta developed Plas-Stick, a biodegradable powder made from waste tamarind seeds. Their idea eventually took them from a school-level environmental project to the global stage, where they were named the Global Winners of The Earth Prize 2026, becoming the first team from India to receive the title. Around 23,000 people voted in the final public vote.

The Idea Started With a Child Drinking Water

The problem they were trying to address was something that is difficult to see. Microplastics can be present in drinking water, but unlike visible dirt or debris, they are not something a person can simply identify by looking at a glass.

The idea for Plas-Stick developed after the students' environmental science studies and a visit to a rural community where drinking water was commonly stored in shared containers without access to advanced filtration systems. During that visit, they noticed a child drinking from one of those containers. It made them think about what might be present in water that looks completely normal.

That observation led them to a practical question: could there be a way to deal with microplastics without depending on expensive filtration systems or complicated infrastructure?

From Discarded Tamarind Seeds to Plas-Stick

The students began experimenting with materials that were inexpensive, biodegradable and locally available. They eventually developed a powder from discarded tamarind seeds.

When added to contaminated water, the powder attracts and binds microplastic particles, causing them to form visible clumps. Those clumps can then be collected using a handheld magnet. The system is designed to work without electricity or complex machinery, making it particularly suited to the kind of shared-water settings the students had in mind.

The significance of the idea lies partly in its simplicity. Instead of treating tamarind seeds as agricultural waste, the team found a potential use for them in addressing an environmental problem that is otherwise difficult to detect and remove.

Plas-Stick is not presented as a replacement for every existing water-treatment system. The team's approach is designed around accessibility, low cost and decentralised use, particularly in communities where advanced filtration may not be readily available.

From a School Project to a Global Recognition

The project first earned international attention when Plas-Stick was selected as the Asia Winner of The Earth Prize 2026. The team received $12,500 in prize funding to develop and implement the idea.

Later, Plas-Stick was selected as one of seven regional winners competing for the global title. On May 29, the three students were announced as the Global Winners during The Earth Prize 2026 awards ceremony.

Their victory was determined through a public vote involving around 23,000 people, making the achievement the first global win for an Indian team in the history of The Earth Prize.

The recognition also gives the students an opportunity to take the project beyond the initial demonstrations. Their stated plans include developing decentralised production hubs and expanding the solution to more rural communities in India.

They Have Already Taken the Idea to Other Students

Plas-Stick has also been used as a way to introduce other young people to environmental science and problem-solving. Through workshops and demonstrations, the project has reached more than 8,000 students and teachers so far.

That part of the project matters because the students are not only developing a product. They are also using the work to show other students how an everyday observation can become the starting point for experimentation.

Their work has been supported by professionals, including Dr. Rajesh Khandelwal, who advised the team as they continued testing and developing the technology.

An Idea Built Around Accessibility

The story of Plas-Stick is ultimately about how the students approached a complicated environmental problem from a very practical starting point.

They saw a community using shared water containers. They noticed a child drinking that water. They thought about a pollutant that cannot be seen with the naked eye. And instead of stopping at the problem, they began looking for materials that were cheap, biodegradable and accessible.

The result was a tamarind-seed-based powder that can make microplastics easier to collect with a simple magnet.

Whether Plas-Stick can eventually be scaled widely will depend on continued testing, development and real-world implementation. But the journey so far has already taken three Indian teenagers from a local observation to a global environmental competition, while turning something as ordinary as a discarded tamarind seed into the basis of an unusual scientific idea.

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