From trash to treasure: Plastic cups to preserve organs

Wondering what to do with used plastic and thermocol tea cups after gulping down the beverage? Don’t discard those. Instead, you might now think of handing them over to the Veterinary College near Hebbal.

Cups are now being effectively used by them to preserve animal organs, that can later be utilised for teaching purposes. Currently, animal organs for research and study are preserved using formalin, which has an adverse impact on eyes, skin and respiratory systems. Plastic and thermocol, on the other hand, are pollutants.

“We are recycling pollutants that are aplenty on Bangalore roads in order to preserve organs in a non-toxic and non-pungent manner, that can later be used to explains concepts in zoological sciences to students, says Ramkrishna V, retired professor, Department of Anatomy, Veterinary College.

Called plastination, the method involves dissolving plastic cups and thermocol in an organic solvent (created by Ramkrishna), and then immersing the dehydrated organs into the solution. The process, which takes about 6-8 weeks, is impactful, says Ramkrishna, “since unlike formalin, plastination has no health impact on people using it for teaching and study purposes.”

The college has created about 300-400 specimens of various animals including ox, cat, pig, dog, buffalo, horse, etc using plastination. According to him, to create 1,000 specimens, about 60 kg of plastic cups and thermocol is needed. “So, that much of plastic and thermocol which ends up as thrash can instead be channeled towards another cause,” he says.

Manjunath K, a postgraduate student at the college, says anatomy is often a nightmare for students due to the pungent smell of formalin. “Plastinating the organs is any day better since it does away with the health risks involved. Moreover, handling of organs is much easier since there is no storage problem,” he says.

Ramkrishna says plastination has been adopted well in the West, but the method and materials there are expensive. Compared to the average Rs 1,000 for plastinating each specimen, the Western concept using silicon costs Rs 50,000. “Hence, I experimented and created an organic solvent that can dissolve plastic tea-cups.” This method uses minimum equipment and is cost effective for a country like India.

Started as a pilot project in 2008 by Ramkrishna and RV Prasad, professor and head, Department of Anatomy, Veterinary College, the project received a grant of Rs 3 lakh from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.