SENIOR High School students from the De La Salle University-Dasmariñas successfully developed an alternative to plastic using rice water.

Grade 12 students Daniel Awil, Chynna Ysabelle Brugada, Jean Carmela Dela Cruz, Paul Albert Enetorio, and Kreian Chyle Lanaria, taking the STEM strand, conducted the experiment.

Group leader Brugada said the plastic alternative was made using starch from rice water. She added that their research aims to cut down plastic waste in the country.

At first, Brugada said they considered developing an environment friendly material such as printer ink made out of charcoal, elastic building materials and face masks made out of pineapple fibers but they ended up with single-use plastic alternatives.

The group explained that the study had four sets — one controlled set-up which is a common plastic and three set-ups containing different percentages of glycerin and rice water solution with a constant amount of vinegar.

“We tried using rice water itself, however, since there was too much water in the mixture, we decided to grind the rice into a fine powder and then added a specific amount of water,” they said.

“The rice water sample was tested and compared with a common single-use plastic material. We found out that our material contains 80 percent rice starch which is comparable in terms of flexibility to a common plastic material,” they added.

DLSU-D High School Vice Principal Marlon Pareja said the research was funded by the university.

“Here in DLSU-D High School, we put premium to research that we even fund student researches like this study. This is because doing research checks all the boxes of 21st century learning skills,” Pareja said.