Fionn Ferreira

is a 20 year-old student, scientist, anti-plastic pollution innovator focusing on solving the plastic pollution crisis. He grew up in a remote region of Ireland and spent a large portion of his childhood paddling around the coasts of Ireland in his kayak with his dog India. 

Fionn was concerned as he observed the increasing amount of plastic washing up on the coastline so he organized several beach cleaning operations, as well as building machines to quantify and collect plastic pollution.

When he heard about microplastics, the harmful tiny plastic particles that cause damage to ecosystems, he  became even more upset! Did you know that  we consume a credit card worth of plastic every week through contaminated food and water, (WWF study 2019) and their consumption has been linked to Alzheimer’s and cancer?

Fionn built several machines using LEGOs, bits of wood and some microcontrollers and sensors to test for these microplastics. Horrified at what he found and unable to find any methods for their removal, he decided to roll up his sleeves and build a method to remove microplastics from water himself. Following many failed attempts (some of which resulted in his home almost burning down and a power cut in his local village) he made a device which uses a magnet-based method to remove the particles from water with surprisingly high extraction rates as well as being fast, non-harmful and clean.

Photo Credit by: ©fionnferreira
https://www.fionnferreira.com/