Angelina Arora was sitting in her local fish and chip shop looking at all the discarded fish waste. Piles of crab shells, prawn tails and fish heads. Kilos and kilos of it, all destined for the bin.

There had to be a better way, the 15-year-old budding young scientist thought.



So she got a few kilograms of discarded shells, took them to her Sydney Girls High School science lab, and started experimenting.



Eventually, she managed to find a way to turn them into a strong, light and biodegradable plastic.

Angelina Arora holding her plastic made from prawn shells. Credit:Louise Kennerley

​The year 10 schoolgirl hopes one day to see it used in plastic bags at supermarkets around Australia.

"The dream is to basically have every single plastic in the world made out of my plastic," she said.