Joseph Gibbon and Matthew Redfern from Pinelands High School won international gold for their work on an innovative plastic pollution mitigation study.
Pinelands, South Africa (19 April 2023) – The future is bright in South Africa, we know this because of the endless good news stories highlighting the next generation’s successes. Recently, Joseph Gibbon and Matthew Redfern earned themselves a gold medal while competing in the prestigious International Festival of Engineering, Science, and Technology in Tunisia (I-FEST2). The two young scientists won gold for their innovative plastic pollution mitigation study.
Joseph and Matthew are students at Pinelands High School in the Western Cape. The school reached out to share the young men’s accomplishments with us. The school is incredibly proud of their efforts and success.
Joseph and Matthew started their project for the school. They then entered it into the Eskom Expo International Science Fair (ISF). Here they won the gold at the expo and were accelerated to a one-week boot camp and granted access to Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) funding valued up to R260,000. Before they knew it, the project was sent on to the I-FEST2 programme.
“We are delighted to receive a gold medal at I-FEST2. We have worked really hard on this project and we are glad to see it pay off. We are so proud of our project. We really enjoyed the whole experience. We learnt a lot about science, research and innovation, and were amazed by the beautiful and fascinating culture of Tunisia. The programme was fun, as well as educational and interesting. Overall, it was a really enriching experience,” said the duo.
“When we began working on this project for our school, we had no idea that IFEST2 existed, but now we’ve had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To us, this shows that if you work hard and give your all for everything you do, it will pay off in ways you can’t even imagine right now,” the duo added.
These young men have a bright future. They have made headlines and been invited to talk on the radio about their big win.
With plastic pollution being such a massive problem globally, every innovation to address the issue is a win! We are just so proud that this one is a Proudly South African idea. Well done young men!
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