The ocean is full of trash. Approximately 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic plus five huge garbage patches are in our oceans, which is killing our marine life.

But a talented student from Karachi University may have discovered a way to save the environment from the harmful effects of using plastic.

Have you ever eaten plastic? Probably not. But researcher Dr Anjum Feroz has an ‘edible’ plan to tackle this global waste problem.

She is a student of KU’s food science and technology department who decided to make edible plastic for her PhD research.

The plastic is made using mango waste. Dr Feroz chose mangoes because Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of mangoes in the world.

She found that the kernel of a mango seed can be used to successfully make biodegradable film or an edible form of plastic. “There is around 60% starch present in the kernel. We developed a method to extract and utilise it to make edible plastic,” she told SAMAA TV.

“If you extract the starch and store it, you can easily use it as raw material for over a year,” she said. “Don’t use the plastic and throw it. Eat it instead. Or dissolve it in water.”

But the process took her around six long years to perfect.