Meet Arnav Kodavati: 17-year-old turns food waste into paper towels

A used paper towel is rarely given a second thought. Once it has wiped up a spill or dried a surface, it usually goes straight into the bin, while the material it was made from has already passed through a much longer chain of production. International Science and Engineering Fair reported that Arnav Kodavati, a 17-year-old student from California, has been looking at that cycle from the other end. His science project explores whether discarded food can provide the cellulose needed to make a biodegradable paper towel, turning part of the waste stream into a new everyday material.The process involves recovering cellulose-rich fibres from food scraps, combining them with pectin and strengthening the resulting sheets with calcium ions. Tests showed that the material could absorb several millilitres of liquid while retaining useful wet strength.