Thinking of ways to reduce the impact of pollution is on everyone's minds. Some are working on methods to reduce air pollution by introducing or adopting electric vehicles and some are trying to reduce the impact on water bodies by reducing the use of plastic. What about ironing?
In 2018, she designed a solar ironing cart so that the use of charcoal can be reduced. A year later, in November 2019, her idea was brought to life by a group of engineers at the National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad. Vinisha says, "To make 1 kg of charcoal 12 fully-grown trees are cut down and it is estimated that there are 10 million ironing carts in India and each burns at least 5 kgs of charcoal every day. This simple design can address the serious problem of air and water pollution."
Her idea won the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE award and an international award called the Children's Climate Prize, one of the world's largest international climate awards for young innovators. Along with the award, she also received a cash prize of Rs 8 lakhs.
Here's what inspired her
In 2018, when Vinisha was returning home from school, she noticed a man who was ironing clothes at the end of her street. She saw him throw a few pieces of hot charcoal on the pathway and then pour water on it. When she asked him why he was doing that, he explained that his day's work was done and that he was cooling the hot charcoal before he could throw it in the dustbin."Once these pieces reach the dustbin, they would be sent to a large landfill in the city where it would lie around for many years, waiting to decompose. On reaching home, I did a little quick research on the internet and learnt that to make 1 kg of charcoal, 12 fully-grown trees need to be cut down. And, this vendor was using charcoal every day. It was not just him, everyone who owned an ironing shop was using charcoal to produce heat. Apart from that, burning of coal emits harmful gasses like carbon monoxide," says Vinisha, adding that she knew these vendors could not afford to use electricity every day.
About the ironing cart
While the 14-year-old knew that solar energy can be harnessed to generate power, she did know how to harness it. To learn about that, she referred to college-level Physics books and also took help from her parents to understand the concepts.
By September 2019, Vinisha had finished working on the technical paper that addressed various aspects of the solar ironing cart such as how it would look, how many solar panels it would use, its benefits to the environment and the buyer, and how much it would approximately cost.
Vinisha Umashankar, a class 8 student from Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu has designed an award-winning solar ironing cart to reduce the use of charcoal.
Source:https://ift.tt/39yhLSz