Thermocol! What is thermocol?

A white-colored
material that is very lightweight and is mostly used
inside the boxes of fragile products, or can be
seen thrown on heaps of garbage or floating on
water.

Let me tell you that the scientific name of

thermocol is polystyrene. It is a form of plastic that
is very light and weak. It is used to keep fragile
things safe. Thermocol is so light because it
contains 90% of the air.

Since thermocol is cheap and easily available

everywhere, As a result, thermocol is used in
everyday life to protect glass or any other item
that can break or be damaged due to stumbling,
such as televisions, refrigerators, or glass
crockery. When we buy such things, we see that
the product is kept in between the thermocols. It is
also used a lot to keep things cool because it
does not allow heat to come inside.
Products inside thermocol never heat up in the
sun. That's why thermocol is used in many places,
such as transportation of medicines, fish, and
products that need to be kept at a cool
temperature.

The use of thermocol is rapidly increasing with the

growth of the packing industry and e-commerce
market. Thermocol is not eco-friendly; hence,
thermocol is very dangerous for the ecosystem.
Thermocol is contaminating water and land. It
also clogs rivers, drains, and streams, and it is not
biodegradable, which means that thermocol is
also very dangerous for our health. Burning
thermocol produces poisonous gases like carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide, and many harmful
gases that cause respiratory and skin diseases
and deplete the ozone layer rapidly. There is no
easy way to dispose of it. Thermocol takes
hundreds of years to be disposed of naturally, and
it is also very expensive to reuse.
So there is an easy way to save our environment
from these harmful effects by productively
recycling thermocols.

Feasible prototype
One way could be making some attractive and
decorative products out of it, such as showpieces,
water fountains, etc.

And we have made a showpiece which is

completely made from waste material and uses
single-use plastic and thermocol pieces.

The structure of the art piece is completely made

up of thermocol and plastic. For strength, we
covered the structure using cloth pieces and
cement or plaster of Paris.

After that, painted it with different colours and

decorated it with some additional art pieces and
colourful lights to increase the attractiveness of
the showpiece. and finally, adding a water pump
for flowing water in the water fountain. The
operation of this model consumes very little
power.
Commercial Viability and Scalability

This water fountain is very lightweight and can be

placed in many places such as the living room,
front door, offices, events, functions, and places
frequently visited by visitors to make the area look
more attractive, as well as to maintain the
humidity in the surrounding area. This model is
handmade with some crafting and painting tools
and does not require any heavy tools or
machinery to manufacture. Therefore, it can be
made by anyone and anywhere in a very short
time. It can be made in different sizes and various
designs according to the requirements. The major
part of it is made up of waste material, which
decreases the cost of raw materials. Hence, it
requires low capital to manufacture and the selling
prices will also be very low, so everyone can buy
it.
Sustainability in Long term

Since this is an art piece, if a product has become

old or broken, then it can be redesigned or
remodeled to form a new product, so it can be
recycled again and again.

Impact on Society

Using this concept, we can reuse single-use

thermocols that are harmful to the environment
rather than burning or disposing of them on land
and water. It will also provide additional
employment for the craft people and cottage
industry. The price of this handmade art piece is
very low as compared to the industry's
manufactured water fountains made of hard
plastic materials.