18-year-old boy from Vadodara, Varun Saikia, has created an AI-powered vessel to clean plastic waste from city lakes

• This advanced vessel can collect crucial environmental data, such as plastic collection, pH value, and unwanted vegetation, which can be helpful for local bodies to address this problem effectively
• Varun is also the founder of a company called Ocean Cleanerz, a clean-tech start-up that works towards finding sustainable solutions for environmental issues
• His goal is to clean all water bodies in India and help shape the ecosystem back to its natural best, making it livable for all living beings

The death of a pilot whale due to plastic ingestion had such an impact on a 12-year-old boy that he decided to clean plastic from ponds, rivers, and other water bodies. Varun Sakia from Vadodara designed a portable machine for collecting plastic, targeting the ponds in his city, and also conducted successful trials to launch it commercially. Due to his determination and hard work, he made six prototypes over the last five years and prepared a final machine equipped with modern technology and features that can effectively clean the ponds. Moreover, Varun has developed a technology that also displays data on plastic collection, which will guide the Municipal Corporation and other concerned organizations in future pond cleaning efforts.

Plastic waste is a serious issue that the world faces today. It impacts the daily lives of people, water bodies, and our planet. A massive amount of plastic waste ends up in water bodies, which poses a threat to marine life. Marine animals mistakenly ingest plastic as food, which results in choking and possible death. Moreover, sometimes they become entangled in this dumped plastic waste, leading to injuries and sometimes death. If we do not find an effective solution quickly, we may end up losing our beautiful marine life.

Varun Saikia, an engineering student from Vadodara, is making serious efforts to help clean water bodies and save marine life. Varun’s passion to design this revolutionary machine received support from a grant from Gujarat Technical University, Drs Kiran & Pallavi Patel Global University (KPGU), and with his own finances, he finally gave shape to his dreams. His Made in India water-collecting device was patented with the title ‘A Garbage Collection Device for the Surface of Water Bodies’, which can collect 200 to 300 kgs of floating plastic and cultural waste in one go.

With help of the government, this 18-year-old boy designed a prototype device that cleans floating plastic waste from water bodies. This patented device named ‘Flipper’ is AI-powered and can be controlled with the help of mobile phones and gadgets connected through the internet. After successful testing, Varun is now ready to launch it commercially and also plans to rent it to NGOs and people who seriously want to do something in this area.

An article about the death of a pilot whale after consuming plastic waste shook Varun to his core, and he decided to take action in this area to save marine life from the extremely hazardous plastic waste.

“As a 12-year-old, I came across an article where a pilot whale in Thailand died after consuming 80 kilograms of plastic waste. After that, I decided to do something in this area and started working on making small prototypes to clean water bodies from plastic garbage. I moved on to make bigger prototypes and finally ended up making my flagship product, ‘Flipper,’ which effectively addresses the problem and helps in cleaning up garbage from water bodies. I tested this patented device multiple times and am now ready to launch it commercially very soon. We are developing the application along with cloud facility for storage of data. The device can be controlled from anywhere as long as it is connected with internet” said Varun.

It was not an easy task for a 12-year-old boy to design an effective device for a solution to this alarming problem. But he didn’t lose hope and tried his luck many times to make a device that could clean plastic garbage from water bodies.

“The journey was not easy for me, as I wanted to create a working model that provides effective cleaning solutions for our ponds, which are slowly turning into heaps of plastic garbage. The ideas are endless, but I need to work on their effective value and design eight prototypes to support them. With grit and determination, I finally created my patented device, ‘Flipper,’ with the help of a 1.76 lakh grant from the Government of Gujarat and our own expenses. This device not only cleans the water bodies but also collects crucial environmental data that can be helpful for local bodies to address this problem effectively,” said Varun.

Varun is also the founder of a company called Ocean Cleanerz Technologies Private Limited, a clean tech start-up that works towards finding sustainable solutions for environmental issues.
With the mission to support cleaning all the water bodies of India, Varun has 256 volunteers globally from Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, and the USA. This flagship device ‘Flipper’ is effective in collecting plastic waste from water bodies and also collects important data to find effective solutions. Varun is also working on bringing some technologies to this device to make it future-ready.

“Our vessel can collect 200 to 300 kgs of plastic waste and can be controlled through devices connected to the internet as it is an electric vehicle. The most important part is data collection of pollutants, pH value, and unwanted vegetation, which helps local and concerned bodies identify the problems, and cleaning becomes easy for them. This machine is a one-stop solution to make water bodies clean and healthy. Moreover, we are working on making it future-ready with features like self-driving, reprogrammable routes, and solar power. Our goal is to clean all water bodies in India, and Ocean Cleanerz becomes a sustainable solutions company that helps in shaping the ecosystem back to its natural best and making it livable for all living beings,” said Varun.

Varun’s mother, Ruchira Choudhuri, has been his biggest supporter since he began to think about inventing this revolutionary vessel and making efforts to implement his plan of action. She has witnessed the journey and now hopes to see Flipper in action within the lakes of Vadodara city, cleaning the hazardous plastic and other waste to make the water bodies a better place for marine life.