When deciding on what I wanted to do for my project, I chose to focus more on my interests and hobbies, in order to have something I would be passionate about throughout the entire course of the year. I have been fascinated by marine biology since I can remember, which has led me to take interest in ocean pollution and its increasing effects. Therefore, I wanted to find a way to incorporate the two of these interests by attempting to create a water soluble material that could replace some uses of plastic. However, as I continued my process, I realized that I would not have been creating something with much meaning, as I could have found the solution to the project by simply searching it up. I wanted to create something that I couldn't find the answer to online. 

This forced me to rethink how I could, again, incorporate something in my day-to-day life into my project. Eating in school cafeterias my entire life, I have been confused at the large amounts of food waste we produce daily; there has to be a better solution to dealing with these scraps then simply throwing them into landfill where they decay slowly and release methane into the atmosphere. When thinking of which scraps in particular I could have used, I thought of some of the most commonly eaten foods. This narrowed my decision down to choosing a sort of fruit. I had heard from my "project expert" that orange scraps were becoming more and more popular for creating fabrics, so I finally decided I would try and create a material from orange peels. 

Part of the reason I decided I wanted to use food waste was because I thought it could be a more cost effective alternative for large companies to use instead of the "biodegradable" materials they use now. Although things like Starbucks' biodegradable straws are better than the plastic straws they formerly used, they are only a small step in improvement; they take at least 7 months to completely biodegrade. Therefore, I wanted to compare the material I made with a biodegradable material from a large company by testing their compostability and affect on plant growth. 

After looking back at my project process, I feel like I would have benefited significantly more by creating more forms of material. Although I feel I successfully made a biodegradable material, I would have liked to test the effects they each had on plant growth in a more thorough and substantive way, as opposed to only testing one.