A 15-year-old boy from Mumbai in India has found a simple way to recycle plastic bottles, carrier bags and packaging—using a converted bicycle pump. The teenager’s idea has been short-listed for the St Andrews Prize, an environmental innovation award, which will be presented at the University of St Andrews next month.

“I saw so much plastic rubbish on the beach here after a festival that I wanted to do something about it,” Yash Joshi told New Scientist in a telephone interview from Mumbai (formerly Bombay) this week. “The problem is that it is not economic to collect and transport all this bulky waste. I decided …