Pollution Protector

Pollution Protector is a project that stemmed from an idea from 9 year old Carmel Dajani. In Carmel’s words, “It all began with a study I did on a book called “One Plastic Bag”, where we learned how plastic waste is slowly taking over our world. Sad isn’t it? As part of our study, I wrote a letter to the supermarkets to tell them to use less plastic packaging. We just had to do something!”

Since having her lightbulb moment, Carmel has attended forest school, robotics workshops and science clubs where she learned to code and developed her idea of the Pollution Protector. 

The idea of the Pollution Protector is that it will be a device that will tell people how and what to recycle, reuse and reduce through barcode scanning. The device will be made from recycled material and will be powered on solar energy. When scanning an item and it signals the user to reuse or reduce the item, the user will be directed to a specially designed website, created by Carmel, that will generate tips, resources and other useful information around the course of action. 

Carmel Dajani is 9 years old and originally from the Netherlands but has called the UK her home since 2018. She is currently being homeschooled by her mother who is assisting her with the Pollution Protector project. Carmel’s latest inspiration was author Onjali Q. Rauf who she met at a book signing event. She was inspired by what made Onjali write her book, and Carmel said, “I like people who make a change in our world, and so will I one day.”