Abercorn Secondary School
Abercorn Secondary's entry was created by a group of S3 pupils who were interested in conserving the local canal.
They discovered that litter dropped on the land, ended up in the canal where it flowed into pockets along the canalside or sank beneath the water.
Since this litter is smelly, bad for wildlife and looks bad, they decided to do something about it.
The group made a model to visualise the travel of water towards the open ocean and noted points of concern where there are built up areas.
They noted that population size has a direct impact on the volume of litter in river ways as larger cities see litter gathering on shorelines.
The group had several ideas to trap the litter so it and preventing it reaching the open ocean: a cage to trap the litter, or a floating net on top of the water where litter gathers. They realised a floating net would need to have larger holes to let fish and other sea life swim between safely and noted that microplastics might get through.
Their final idea was to use a fine mesh to filter water from drains and sewage pipes to reduce what goes into the river.
