A Home For Plastic Bags, and Plastic Bags For a Home

Congratulations to 12-year-old Max Wallack — he can now claim the distinct honor of having won PBS Kids Design Squad‘s “Trash to Treasure” competition, by giving plastic bags and packing peanuts a worthwhile new purpose.

So just what was the brilliant idea Max came up with? Wallack invented a “Home Dome,” a structure made of plastic bags filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts, designed to serve as a temporary shelter for homeless people and disaster victims. It also would help relieve landfill growth. Max was awarded a $10,000 prize provided by the Intel Foundation, but said: “I don’t really care about the money. I care about helping people.”

What an awesome idea, and — what’s more — it isn’t even his first. According to the article, Wallack has been making waves since the ripe old age of six, with an invention contest win that landed him a trip to Chicago. It can only get bigger and better for this kid. Let’s hope he keeps his sights trained on saving the world.

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Blog Bites, The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.