ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research study would not have been successful without the support of the

following people:

To Almighty God, who never failed to guide us in everything that we do.

Our parents, who loved us and supported us with all their heart, and never left.

No matter how long it took us to go home after school, or how much money we asked

them to pay for our fees. They always remained.

Mrs. June Venelee Apor, ops typo. Ms June Venelee Delgado, our research

teacher, for guiding us and helping us in finishing our paper. Without her guidance, we

wouldn’t be able to finish this study.

Mrs. Rosalie Espinosa, our statistics teacher, who helped us refresh our minds on

the statistical tests that are to be used on the study.

Ms. Catherine Mira, our class adviser, and Mrs. Fe Magale, our school head, for

being there whenever we need help.

Mr. Jopril Aben, our physics mentor from USC, who helped us figure out how to

measure the contact angles, gave us the software and created our testing setup in the

laboratory. Thank you so much. You are the reason why we were able to finish this.

Special thank to the USC-TC Physics Department, and to the Photonics

Laboratory, for allowing us to use the laboratory for free.

 ABSTRACT

This research study came from the idea of solving the worldwide problem of

pollution, with plastic as its main pollutant, may it be on land or water.

The purpose of this study is to know if waste plastic has the ability to be turned

into a hydrophobic coating. The procedure includes gathering of waste LDPE plastic

from the grounds of Mandaue City Comprehensive National High School, then washing

and drying. The plastics were then cut to small pieces. There are three trials in each

setup of the experiment. The setups include the control, the plastic-coated, and the

plastic silica coated. To measure the surfaces’ hydrophobicity, contact angles were

measured using a microscope and camera, through the software ImageJ. The results

showed positive outcomes, thus proving that plastic is an efficient hydrophobic coating

for roof surfaces.