COULD TAMARIND BE THE ANSWER TO THE MICROPLASTICS PROBLEM IN OUR OCEANS?

COULD TAMARIND BE THE ANSWER TO THE MICROPLASTICS PROBLEM IN OUR OCEANS?

Who could have imagined that an ingredient used to make our favorite sour soup could possibly help solve the problem of microplastics in our waters?

Apparently, three 16-year-old Indian students did.

Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta developed Plas-Stick, a biodegradable magnetic powder made from discarded tamarind seeds. In May 2026, their invention became the first Indian team to win The Earth Prize, a global environmental competition for young people. The powder causes microplastics in water to clump together, after which the clumps can be removed with a handheld magnet. 

Now, before we get too excited, there is an important qualification: this is not yet a magic powder that can simply be thrown into the Pacific Ocean. The technology has been developed primarily for contained water, particularly rural drinking-water applications. Putting a flocculant into the open ocean without a way of recovering the resulting material could simply transfer pollution from the water column to the seabed.

But isn't the idea worth investigating?

For our farmers, it could mean another possible market for tamarind and even for tamarind seeds that would otherwise be discarded.

For our fishermen, cleaner waterways could eventually mean healthier aquatic ecosystems and better fisheries.

And for consumers, reducing plastic pollution at its source could mean safer seafood. Philippine studies have already detected microplastics in fish and shellfish. DOST researchers, for example, found confirmed microplastics among particles extracted from bangus samples in Mindanao. At the same time, BFAR has correctly emphasized that the health effects at current environmental exposure levels are still not fully established.

So, pardon me if I sound like a broken record, but who should lead in bringing this technology to the Philippines?

DA? DOST?

Or perhaps DENR, because marine pollution is an environmental concern?

Maybe even DFA, because technology transfer can be part of economic diplomacy?

But do we really need to import this technology?

Could we have Filipino scientists develop something even better?

We already have researchers in DOST, DA-BFAR, UPLB and UP-MSI, among others. DOST has even established facilities such as MicroQUIB at the UP Marine Science Institute for microplastics research.

Perhaps what we need is not another committee, but motivation and coordination.

This reminds me of Ramon Uy Sr. of Bacolod City, who has consistently promoted the idea that our objective should be to make farmers richer. Why not apply the same thinking to fishermen?

Instead of pointing fingers, why not ask DA, DOST, DENR, DFA and our universities to work together—and work fast?

The Indian teenagers looked at something as ordinary as a tamarind seed and saw a possibility.

Could a Filipino scientist be looking at the same seed today?

And could it be that the answer to one of our biggest environmental problems is already growing in our own backyard?

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres  iseneres@yahoo.com  senseneres.blogspot.com  09088877282/09-11-2027