Former West Sussex Student Helps Create Award-Winning Microplastic Solution

A masters student who grew up in Horsham has helped create a device that's won the national leg of the James Dyson Award.

Hugo Richardson, who attended Christ's Hospital school, is a member of the group who received the award on Thursday (17), which recognises student inventors with the ability and ambition to solve the 'problems of tomorrow'.

The Tyre Collective, who've also previously won The Mayor's Entrepreneur Competition, claim to have found a way to drastically reduce microplastic particles from worn tyres, the second biggest microplastic problem facing the world today.

Tyre particles are a major contributor to air and ocean pollution, 500,000 tonnes of them are produced annually in Europe alone from vehicles accelerating, braking and cornering.

This accounts for an estimated 50% of road transport particulate emissions globally.

The students from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art created the device which is designed to take advantage of airflows around a spinning wheel and collect around 60% of the airborne particles.

Speaking to More Radio, Hugo said:

"Once captured, the tyre collectors can process these particles to be reused in a variety of applications - from new tyre production to inks and dies creating a closed loop system."

Winning the award will inject £2,000 into The Tyre Collective’s project which the team plan to use for further research into how their invention can become a global solution to capture tyre wear at the source and prevent it from polluting the wider environment. 

They'll also be entered into the international stage, where they have the chance to be selected by Sir James Dyson and awarded a further £30,000 to help develop their idea and £5,000 for their university.

If dubbed Sustainability winner they'll also receive £30,000 for their service to the environment.

Hugo added:

"Our passion about the environment and our want to make real lasting impact was what brought us together initially as a team.

"So it's definitely what we strive for, and what we hope to achieve through The Tyre Collective.

"Winning awards like this can also help us raise public awareness of this."

The team have now formed a company and will be part of Innovation RCA which is an incubator to help graduates grow their ideas.

You can find out more about what their up to here.