Nine-year-old patents eco-friendly invention

A nine-year-old, thought to be New Zealand's youngest patent applicant, has had his eco-friendly waste disposal invention accepted by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand.

Auckland's Ryan Nicholls was only eight when he invented the Waste-Away, an eco-friendly way to dispose of household and commercial food waste by converting old food and food scraps into fertiliser.

It separates mulched food waste and collects it in a composting container. Over time the resulting compost is added to a garden or collected for sale as fertiliser.

"I was fed up with taking out the compost, so I invented a machine that would do it automatically," Ryan said.

"It started out as a little project and now I want to improve it until it is good enough for mass production."

Sustainability expert Francesca Price said Ryan's invention showed a smart young mind at work and could revolutionise household composting by making it easier and giving it commercial value.

"The Waste-Away has the potential to halve the amount of household rubbish we send to landfill as well as producing a rich fertiliser that can be bought in bulk by commercial and private food growers," she said.

Ryan's invention was the winner of the $10,000 Patent Prize Package from patent attorney firm A J Park and the Icehouse Business Incubator in this year's series of the television show Let's Get Inventin'.

Technical expert Christopher Chitty, of Massey University, worked with Ryan on the show to transform the concept into a marketable product.

"My job was to work with Ryan's inventive imagination, add some practical know-how, and make his idea a real product," he said.

A J Park partner Anton Blijlevens said that as far as the firm knew Ryan was the youngest inventor to have had a patent accepted in New Zealand.

- NZPA