Year 6 student Saskia was featured in Channel Seven’s television show ‘House of Wellness’, after receiving the Pretty Ambitious award at the Pretty Inspirational Awards 2020. 

As part of a project, Saskia developed her innovative invention of a robotic bin to overcome Australia’s mounting plastic problem, which is what led to her being nominated for the award.

Aware of the pervasive societal issue in Australia of having no effective or simple solution for sorting plastics for recycling, Saskia came up with an accessible solution. Her ‘Bot Bin’ sorts, washes and squashes plastics so they can be appropriately recycled and reused. Users simply scan the barcode of the plastic item they are attempting to sort, and the Bot Bin does the rest. Saskia is in the process of submitting proposals to Victorian business leaders as well as the Victorian and Federal Governments with hopes to turn her prototype into a reality. Saskia is even working with the Carbon & Renewables Manager, Rhyannon Galea, at South Pole Australia to help her take the project to the next level.

Congratulations to Saskia for channelling her passion for the environment and STEM and bringing her ideas to life through this innovative product. We wish Saskia the best of luck with bringing her invention to life!

Watch the House of Wellness episode below. To view Saskia’s feature, skip ahead to the 35 minute mark.