Recently on my Facebook feed, I have been seeing links to a video of a 16-yearold Turkish girl from Istanbul by the name of Elif Bilgin who has successfully created a bioplastic out of banana peels. Although Bilgin was awarded the Scientific American Science in Action Award and the Voter's Choice Award in the 2013 Google Science Fair. In the video, Bilgin explains that she began the project when she was just 14, having become frustrated with the plastic pollution she saw in the Bosporus.She found out that petroleum based plastics are causing a vast amount of pollution and that bioplastic, a type of biodegradable plastic derived from biological substances rather than petroleum, is indeed a solution. Not only is it cheaper to make, but it also works to recycle waste material.She spent the following two years researching alternatives to petroleum-based plastic and the current methods for producing bioplastic. Although there was a bioplastic made from potatoes, Bilgin wanted to see if she could make plastic out of organic waste material rather than using something that can be consumed. Banana peels were the perfect solution as they are both high in starch and cellulose and generally thrown out. After two years of developing her project and making 12 trial runs - with only the last two successful - Bilgin finally succeeded in making a bioplastic from banana peels.The process she uses involves dipping the peel in sodium metabisulphite solution before boiling and pureeing the peels. The resulting paste is then baked to create a type of plastic that can easily be used as cable insulation or for cosmetic prosthetics. "Anyone can use this plastic and our beautiful planet will be spared from the consequences of the production of plastics with petroleum derivatives," says Bilgin in the video that has gone viral, adding that in the meantime, she has also perfected her recipe for banana splits and cupcakes.Bilgin, who is a junior at Koç High School, and for the past seven years has been attending the Istanbul Science and Art Center for gifted students, submitted her project titled, "Going Bananas! Using Banana Peels in the Production of Bioplastic as a Replacement for Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic," to the 2013 Google Science Fair, with no hopes, she said, of being a finalist. Her project not only won the Scientific American Magazine's Science in Action award of $50,000 (TL 108,313) for being innovative, easy to put into action and reproducible in other communities, but her work also drew in votes of support from all over the world, winning her the Votertarget="_blank"'>Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields and the only person to win in multiple sciences, namely physics and chemistry. Check out this intelligent, beautiful, charming and inspiring young Turkish girl, who is being discovered worldwide for her contribution to science. "I don't think that it is your age that determines the potential you have, it is the unlimited imagination you have that gives you the unlimited potential to create," says Bilgin.