ORLANDO, Fla. — Monday, April 22 will mark the annual Earth Day, a global event celebrated by over a billion people in 193 countries.

What You Need To Know

  • Styrofoam can last up to 800 years in a landfill and one Orlando group wants to do something about that

  • One group of central Florida inventors, who all went to the same high school, have created a safe fertilizer that is now being sold on the market

  • What kick-started this team was their product known as Wriggle Brew, a liquid version of solar soil, which won them a $275 thousand grant

  • The team believes the state’s environmental problems, such as red tide, can be solved with change and safe fertilizers

For most people, it is a day to show support for environmental protection.

But for one group of Central Florida inventors, who all went to the same high school, solving environmental problems is done by making real change.

Their company, called “Prag,” is taking Styrofoam normally thrown into landfills and turning it to an organic fertilizer that can be used anywhere.

Samuel Baker, CEO and founder of Prag, says Styrofoam and related plastics are piling up high in American landfills and will last up to 800 years.

“There are hundreds of millions of piles of Styrofoam, and it just never goes away. It never breaks down,” said Baker.

Baker, and his team of former high school and UCF friends, have been working together for several years now trying to figure out how to recycle something abundant like Styrofoam.

They believe they have figured out a formula that compresses and breaks down the Styrofoam, and through a number of processes, converts it into a safe fertilizer called, “Solar Soil.”

Thanks to winning a $275 thousand grant, the team of young researchers and biologists have been able to set up an Orlando laboratory inside a warehouse, providing them a reliable place to do their work.

Chief researcher Gabe Degalia helps create the organic fertilizer, spending his expertise looking through his microscope to better understand how to solve breaking down plastic naturally.

“This stuff is very difficult for living organisms to break down on its own. It will help your plants retain moisture and will also provide a very good soil structure for them to grow it,” said Degalia.

What kick-started this team was a product they created called Wriggle Brew, a liquid version of Solar Soil. 

Baker says the state’s environmental problems, such as red tide, can be solved with change and by moving consumers and homeowners to safer products on the marketplace.

“There are huge problems that are happening everywhere. And a lot of it is because of the materials we use every day,” said Baker.

Prag’s products are being sold by local landscape companies and online.

The team has applied for another grant for $1 million and hope to invest that into their current projects and inventing additional safe products for the marketplace.