Our story begins in our school, which is near the Paranaque river. As students we witnessed the continuing problem with waste management in the rivers and waterways, with plastic and trash accumulating daily. This was not just an eyesore, it was an alarming threat to the health of the nearby aquatic life and communities surrounding it. This challenge is common across the Philippines, where polluted river water flows into the seas and clog many drainage systems. It heavily demands an innovative solution. 

  As a group, we were inspired by a need to not just clean up the waters, but to change how we interact with our environment. This led to the creation of FLOWS: Floating Litter-Optimized waste system.