Young scientist bags award in Belgium

Ece Çelik- ISTANBUL

A Turkish chemist, who developed projects for the recycling of many products, has won the “Eos Pipet” Award, which is given to promising young scientists in Belgium.

Working on sustainability projects by recycling every product in daily life from milk packages to chocolate packaging and from fishing nets to pantyhose, chemist Sibel Üğdüler was awarded the “Eos Pipet” in Belgium for her inventions.

Graduated from Boğaziçi University’s Chemical Engineering Department, Üğdüler developed an interest and curiosity in chemistry during her high school years.

“It was fascinating to see how much a study you do in the laboratory can change so many things in our lives. Textiles, medicines, all goods, colors, everything starts from chemistry,” Üğdüler explained.

She learned that Ghent University in Belgium, where she went with a student exchange program, provided a great investment and opportunity for the projects she wanted to take part in. For this reason, after graduating from the university, she applied again to Ghent University to get a master’s degree and continued her studies there.

Emphasizing that recycling is also of great importance for the raw material shortage in the world, Üğdüler said, “If I cannot produce a chocolate package from a chocolate package again, I need raw materials to produce a chocolate package.”

“That means I cannot actually recycle that product. This does not produce a solution in the sense of protecting nature. In my current study, I am exploring how we can find a solution to this,” she explained.

“We are currently on the way to obtaining patents for the three solutions we have produced. Our work has real-life consequences,” Üğdüler noted.

Elaborating on the sustainability projects in Türkye, Üğdüler said that selling bags for money in grocery stores created awareness.

“People realized that bags had an impact on nature. However, more recycling projects should be produced in Türkiye,” she added.