Brothers’ shared interest in STEM led to collaboration on ‘EcoEase’

Frank and James Hyland aren’t just an effective collaborative team: the two are brothers, which, they admit, made it easy for them to put in the time their project, ‘EcoEase’, which has won them the 3rd Junior Group (Health & Wellbeing) award.

Frank, who is in 2nd year, and James, 1st year, came up with the idea of recycling workwear into fidget/stress relief toys for neurodivergent minds – a project that is in tune with the current “circular economy” thinking.

“What we have done – as the name suggests – is use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and workwear, such as ear plugs, and after sanitising them, turned them into stress balls,” explains Frank.

The boys brought with them some old work garments of the type that they use to create the outer casing of their stress toys, and used ear plus, which they employ as the filler in the toys.

“In our old primary school, there was a good few kids who had to wear headphones as they were actually neurodiverse and they were sensitive to noise. And after hearing from our dad about how there is a lot of work wear being disposed of in factories, we combined the two issues to make the solution you now see before you,” says Frank.

The prototypes the boys designed were a sphere and a cube. “In our research, we found that the first prototype – the sphere – was actually favoured, and we also found the best cleaning method for the ear plugs and work wear,” says James.

That cleaning method involves the use of hot water and antibacterial dish soap; squeezing them to dry them, and then washing them a second time.

The brothers spent four months on their project.