We are the FLL Minions, a First LEGO League team from Minnesota. 

 

What is First LEGO League? FLL is a worldwide program that introduces youth to the fun and excitement of science and technology.

 

What do we do? We program robots and research original solutions to real-life problems. We work together as a team as we write computer programs, talk to experts, and share what we've learned with our community. But most of all, we have FUN.

 

This year's FLL challenge is Trash Trek – yep, our goal was to learn about trash!

 

We brainstormed a lot of different ideas, everything from reducing the packaging for toys to proposing a refillable dairy bar at grocery stores. But in the end, we decided to research how to reduce the waste created by cardboard pizza boxes.

 

Pizza boxes create a lot of trash (3 billion boxes are thrown away every year). And, in most places, they are not recyclable because they are contaminated by food and grease. Check out our 2015 Project Page to see what we discovered by talking to pizza companies and conducting a worldwide survey of pizza customers, and to find out what our proposed solution to this very real problem is. (Hint: it's an easier fix than you might think!)