3 female students won more than 2 billion VND with the idea of ​​self-destructing tampons

The group of 3 Vietnamese female students overcame more than 650 teams from 516 schools in 114 countries and territories to win the first prize of the international competition on environmental protection initiatives The Earth Prize. They are the only Vietnamese representatives to reach the final round and also the first champion of this award.

With the idea of ​​​​producing tampons from dragon fruit skins, the three convinced the jury when they could solve both agricultural waste and domestic waste.

Starting research from July 2021, the female students have considered many types of materials such as bamboo and banana, but they are not suitable due to strict requirements on processing methods, cultivation, or high cost.

At the same time, with the movement to “rescue” the dragon fruit, the group of friends also read scientific articles about the good water permeability of the dragon fruit shell. From there, the 3 girls decided to choose dragon fruit shell as the main material to research and develop their products.

In order to find a suitable solution to the requirements, the team stayed up many times at night to read many documents, research on materials, as well as calculate labor and production costs.

“Regular tampons take about 500 years to decompose in the environment, in addition, the absorbency of tampons is also a big problem for waste separation. We feel that this is a big problem, but it has been “abandoned” for a long time in Vietnam in particular and other countries in general. – Tu Uyen, in charge of technical research said.

The group of young people hopes that with their initiative this time, they can inspire many other young people to boldly develop their creative ideas.

“We have never had any disagreements during our work. Our biggest difficulty is in each of us personally, because we cannot meet each other and always have our own jobs,” – the female students said.

Therefore, in order to balance study and research, the group of female friends trained the ability to manipulate multiple tasks at the same time to save time. The children also said that they have received a lot of support from their parents, instructors and people around. Tu Uyen’s mother and me carried out many experiments to verify the physico-chemical properties of dragon fruit skin, thereby choosing the right materials for biodegradable tampons.

From the money received from the award, the three female students plan to start a startup with 300,000 USD (including labor costs and one machine upgrade) to produce products for the market. Calculation team, in 2022 and 2023 will continue to research and develop products. Once they have a sample product, they will test the product on a large scale by providing free samples at schools, restrooms, medical rooms, and surveying user reviews. .

The three female students hope to break even after five years and continue to research the advantages of dragon fruit peels for other products such as diapers and reusable wipes. At the same time, the ambition is to expand production to countries with favorable conditions to grow dragon fruits after the business has had a stable development time.

Sharing with VietNamNet, Lan Anh, Luong Anh Khanh Huyen’s mother, not until the last minute did the children announce to their family that they had won the first prize, everyone was surprised and happy. Families will continue to support their children to continue on the path of scientific research.

Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Ivo Sieber shared that he was very impressed and extremely confident in the ability of Vietnamese students today.

“What we are witnessing here today is a very clear demonstration of the development ability of Vietnamese students when there is a comprehensive educational environment. Vietnam is making great strides in building a solid education for students to develop their talents. We should create more conditions for students to be free to develop their abilities and come up with more creative ideas.” – said Mr. Ivo Sieber.

Starting from September 2021, The Earth Prize competition to find the most practical initiatives to solve environmental problems is organized by the NGO The Earth Foundation – an organization based in Vietnam. in Geneva, Switzerland. The competition is open to students from around the world between the ages of 13 and 19, with a total prize pool of up to $200,000. The competition’s jury includes many well-known personalities and expertise in environmental issues.

Van Anh