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In a cramped student apartment near Kuala Lumpur, three university friends stared at their kitchen sink in frustration.
The drain had clogged again—this time so stubbornly that even industrial-strength chemicals couldn’t budge the greasy blockage.
When the plumber finally arrived, his warning was stark: “Keep pouring cooking oil down there, and this will happen every month.”
That moment of domestic annoyance would eventually lead Ong Jing Rou, Natalie Tham, and Ng Wen Kai from Asia Pacific University (APU) to create UNBLOK—a deceptively simple invention that has just won them Malaysia’s James Dyson Award 2025 and RM27,800 to develop their idea further.
Their solution tackles what might be the most overlooked environmental crisis hiding beneath our kitchen sinks.
From Curry to Crisis: Malaysia’s 70% Sewer Blockage Problem
In Malaysia, where rich curries and oil-heavy dishes are culinary staples, fats, oils, and grease—collectively known as FOG—are responsible for up to 70 per cent of sewer blockages.
These substances don’t just disappear when we wash them down the drain; they solidify underground, forming grotesque “fatbergs” that can stretch for city blocks and cost millions to remove.
“The deeper we researched, the more we realised how significant this issue is for urban environments,” the team explained.
Fatbergs cause flooding, damage infrastructure, and put sanitation workers at risk.
But here’s where the story gets ingenious: instead of creating another plastic filter destined for landfills, the students turned to palm fibre—the fibrous waste left over from Malaysia’s massive palm oil industry.
As the world’s second-largest palm oil producer, Malaysia generates enormous amounts of this agricultural byproduct, which is typically discarded or burned.
The Science Behind the Solution: Palm Fibre’s Path to Success
UNBLOK is a compact under-sink filter that utilises replaceable palm fibre cores to trap fats and grease before they enter sewer systems, with the used cores later being composted or converted into biofuel.
The development took a full year of testing with real kitchen waste, during which the team experimented with various natural materials before discovering that palm fibre proved most effective.
This discovery incorporated key design breakthroughs, including lateral water flow and mesh layers, for optimal performance.
The invention adopts a circular economy approach, where used filter cores are collected and processed into fertilisers, biodiesel, or fuel pellets, thereby transforming waste into value at every step.
“We wanted a solution that wasn’t just effective, but also environmentally responsible,” the students explained.
In a country where only 7.6 per cent of households properly recycle used cooking oil, UNBLOK offers a practical alternative that requires no behavioural change from users and no tools for installation or complex maintenance.
The Next Chapter: UNBLOK’s Journey to Global Recognition
The invention is now advancing to the international James Dyson Award competition, where global winners can receive up to £166,700 (approximately RM943,663).
But regardless of what happens next, these three students have already demonstrated something profound: that the most innovative solutions often emerge from the most mundane problems, and that environmental challenges can become opportunities when viewed through the right lens.
The award also recognised two runners-up: Ecliptica, a tactile learning tool that helps visually impaired students understand solar eclipses, and FMAS, a flood monitoring system for vulnerable communities.
Together, these inventions showcase a generation of Malaysian innovators who see problems not as obstacles, but as invitations to create a better world.
As Assoc. Prof. Noor Azurati Ahmad from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) noted that UNBLOK represents “how young Malaysian innovators are driving sustainable innovation through practical engineering solutions”—proving that sometimes the biggest environmental impact starts with the most minor household frustrations.
Sir James Dyson is a British inventor and industrial designer, best known for founding the Dyson company and developing innovative technologies, including the bagless vacuum cleaner.
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