A quartet of DCU students has won this year's Forbairt Student Enterprise Award with a design for a revolutionary kitchen compactor.

Brian Kevans, Jonathan Turner, Edward Bowman and Andrew Byrne, all business studies students in the university, developed a state-of-the-art kitchen appliance called the Enviro-Plus, which compresses all forms of kitchen and household rubbish to one-12th of their original volume. The DCU students received a cheque for £2,000, presented to them last week by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Harney.

The winning project was one of four finalists selected from 222 projects submitted by 900 students. The other finalists were the Presto Swirl, a freshly-baked bread swirl filled with Mozzarella cheese and other Italian ingredients designed by four students from UCC; the Earth Anchor, a lightweight polymer bolt used to create an anchored base in soil for anything from trees to marquees, which came from UL; and a new type of breast implant, created from plantderived natural biodegradable material, designed by four students from Tralee RTC.