Never ever think you’re too young, or too inexperienced to make a difference… Read about Amy's Smog Hog. (What a great name!)

  A 13 year old inventor has won praise for developing an eco-friendly device to cut New Zealand’s killer air pollution, which claims the lives of nearly 1100 people per year.

Amy Clucas built what she calls a “Smog Hog” – a gadget that uses water to trap harmful particles from a fire on the way up a chimney, and prevents it getting into the environment.

Smoke from fireplaces is one of the two largest contributors to New Zealand's air-pollution problem, according to The New Zealand Herald, referring to a recent report that said air pollution was claiming nearly 1,100 lives a year across the country.

Amy came up for the idea for the “Smog Hog” last year. “I’ve always been interested in science and I really wanted to reduce smog because of the health and environmental effects,” Clucas told the Herald.

The invention has one small drawback: Water that is sprayed to capture the harmful pollutants in the chimney resulted in a buildup of poisonous black liquid.

Not discouraged by this setback, Amy set about finding a solution. After a series of experiments this year, she found that the liquid left over could be successfully recycled into briquettes that could be re-used as a fuel. What makes it even better, is that you can do this conversion in your own home.

While the concept needs a bit of tweaking before it can be implemented, the device has been praised for being a very possible solution to combating air pollution.