Science Fair Project

My science fair is about what can dissolve Styrofoam the best, and my hypothesis was that using lemon’s juice might be the best solution for dissolving Styrofoam, because it is used in many cleaning products. Also it is know as the sourest fruit which has a high acid content.

Styrofoam, is often used for packaging, and is now turning into an environmental problem because people are having a difficult time recycling it. Styrofoam is made from polystyrene, but the difference is that polystyrene is a strong plastic. Polystyrene is created by two chemical elements which are erethylene and benzene, and when these two elements combined it will turn out to be a Styrofoam. However, Styrofoam cannot be decomposed in a natural way, so this would cause soil pollution; because it remains on the ground without disappearing, and then ends up to be a harmful pollution. This would lead to many side effects such as, the ground is polluted, landfills cannot be used, and famers will not be able to farm. To illustrate, it occupies a large amount of space, it is expensive to develop and is not easy to decompose. Unfortunately, not many recycling programs accept Styrofoam. Therefore, it is surprising that such material is made by oil and toxic, and is allowed to be use as packaging for food; mainly for items such as meat where the food has direct contact with it. Nearly two dozen cities in the United States have banned the use of Styrofoam for this purpose. In this project I am showing a way to save money and demonstrate a more natural way to dissolve Styrofoam.

           My conclusion is that orange peel extract is the best to dissolve Styrofoam. I also learned that limonene only contain in peels but not the inside, and learned that orange’s peel have more limonene than lemon’s peel.