A Puerto Rico seventh-grader has found an unusual use for something that would normally be thrown away after lunch: plantain peels. Wileidy Feliciano-Rivera collected discarded peels from her school cafeteria and turned them into a biodegradable mulch designed to control weeds in agricultural soil. In four-week tests, her two plantain-based mulch versions reduced weed growth by 47% and 53% compared with uncovered soil, while also helping retain moisture and lower soil temperatures. Her project has now earned her a place among the 30 finalists in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, according to the Society for Science, the competition organiser.
From cafeteria waste to an agricultural material
Wileidy, a seventh-grade student at Escuela Intermedia Rafael Irizarry Rivera in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, began the project by looking at two problems connected to agriculture: plastic waste and the disposal of organic material.Plastic mulch is used by farmers to cover soil, suppress weeds and help retain moisture. But after use, plastic mulch can become agricultural waste. Wileidy explored whether a biodegradable material could perform some of the same functions without relying on conventional plastic. Her attention turned to plantain peels being discarded at her school. Instead of treating them as waste, she investigated whether they could serve as the raw material for a bioplastic mulch. The resulting project was called EcoMusa. Its name reflects the use of Musa paradisiaca, the scientific name used in the project for the plantain source material.
How Wileidy made EcoMusa
The young researcher processed the discarded plantain peels and used them to produce sheets of bioplastic. According to Society for Science, she first chopped the peels into smaller pieces before blending them with water, acetic acid, glycerin and cornstarch. The mixture was then heated and poured into trays, where it was allowed to dry and form sheets.Wileidy produced two versions of the material, known as EcoMusa 1 and EcoMusa 2. She then tested whether they could work as mulch by placing them over soil and comparing their performance with uncovered soil and commercial black plastic mulch.The experiment was designed to look at more than just whether weeds appeared. Wileidy also monitored soil moisture, soil temperature and how the plant-based material degraded during the test period.
Weed growth dropped by up to 53%
The experiment ran for four weeks, during which Wileidy tracked weed density in the different test areas. EcoMusa 1 reduced weed growth by 47%, while EcoMusa 2 produced a 53% reduction compared with uncovered soil. The Society for Science reported that the two versions performed comparably to the commercial black plastic mulch used in the experiment. The mulch also affected conditions beneath the soil covering. The plantain-based materials kept soil temperatures between one and three degrees Celsius lower than uncovered soil and helped retain moisture.Those results suggest that the material could perform some of the functions expected from agricultural mulch. However, the experiment was limited to four weeks, so the findings do not establish how the material would perform over a full growing season or across different crops and farming conditions.
A project linking food and plastic waste
EcoMusa brings together two types of waste that are often treated separately. The plantain peels used in Wileidy’s experiment were food waste from her school cafeteria. Turning them into a bioplastic mulch gave that discarded material another potential use.At the same time, the project explores an alternative to conventional plastic mulch. Because EcoMusa is biodegradable, its intended purpose is not simply to replace one form of plastic with another, but to create a material that can break down after use. The project therefore goes beyond the idea of simply making a new material. It examines whether a readily available waste product can be converted into something useful for agriculture.
A place among 2026’s young science finalists
Wileidy’s research has now taken her beyond her school laboratory. Her EcoMusa project was selected among the 30 finalists for the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. The competition, run by the Society for Science, recognises middle-school students conducting research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The finalists are scheduled to participate in Finals Week in Washington, DC, from October 23 to 28, with more than $100,000 in prizes available.For Wileidy, the project began with a simple observation about material being discarded at school. She turned those peels into a research question and then tested whether the resulting material could do a useful job in agriculture.
What the experiment shows
EcoMusa is not yet evidence that plantain-peel mulch can replace commercial agricultural plastic on a large scale. More research would be needed to determine its durability, degradation rate, performance across different environments and suitability for different crops. But Wileidy’s four-week experiment produced measurable results. Her two mulch versions reduced weed growth by up to 53%, while also helping retain soil moisture and moderate soil temperature.The project demonstrates how an everyday waste product can become the starting point for a scientific experiment. What began as discarded plantain peels from a Puerto Rico school cafeteria has become a biodegradable agricultural material that Wileidy is now testing as a possible way to manage weeds while addressing waste.
