New War Against Filth

Nigéria: Une appli pour mieux gérer les déchets

African countries have been leading in some IT applications:  Kenya’s M-Pesa example of mobile payments and credits is the best known example. Another important app in Nigeria has just passed the pilot stage: Saviour Anyanwu has created an app to get households and waste collectors working together (see https://okwueco.com ).

“War Against Filth” was a programme of the Nigerian government in the 1980 to fight pollution. The government in the meantime has approved waste recycling plants in virtually every state in Nigeria, but many are not operational. Many people do not know about their existence or their location.

The app uses image recognition (like the BeachBot – see https://project.bb/) to educate households about recycling, and links them with merchants who pay for the waste with cash credits or air time through an online platform.   The app’s inbuilt GPS helps merchants navigate the clogged streets of rapidly expanding cities, and directs them to various households’ sorted waste.  The solid waste is then brought to recycling centres, helping to establish a circular economy in metals, plastics, paper and glass. The app will be available in dozens of Nigeria’s 200-plus languages. (See: https://africanbusinessmagazine.com/region/west-africa/startups-lead-the-way-on-recycling-in-west-africa/)

The BeachBot

This summer, the BeachBot had its first outing on Scheveningen Beach in The Hague. It roams around on the beach, recognizes litter, and picks up small litter like cigarette filters and other waste. If in doubt, the robot makes a picture of the object found and mails it to people connected to a special app. Their answers help the programme learn to distinguish between litter and other objects, so the BeachBot’s performance will continuously improve (see https://project.bb/) In a playful way, its creators want to contribute to more awareness about littering.

It will take a while until robots will clean the beaches in Sierra Leone. In the meantime, the Sierra Leone School Green Clubs will do it by hand. Its cooperation with many schools in the country’s Western Rural Area with more than 3500 students helps to reduce plastic pollution and forms the basis for SLSGC’s recycling activities. At the same time, it increases awareness of ocean pollution among students and teachers.

Skateboards from bottle tops

 

“WasteBoards” are a new initiative of Plastic Whale, founded in 2011 by Marius Smit to build a ship from the plastic waste in Amsterdam’s channels (see http://plasticwhale.org/).

WasteBoards are skateboards made from bottle tops, collected during festivals. The procedure is simple:  The tops are put into a mould and put into a hot oven. A couple of hours later, the WasteBoard is ready. Plastic Whale is now crowdfunding to finance a Mobile WasteBoard Bakery, which can travel from festival to festival.

 

The first WasteBoards were produced during the Amsterdam Dance Event in October 2015.

The price of a WasteBoard is € 99 (or more).  Each WasteBoard is unique, because of the specific combination of bottle tops.

Nigerian bottle houses

 

See excellent pictures of beautiful bottle houses in Nigeria:

http://thisisafrica.me/lifestyle/homes-made-of-plastic-bottles-and-mud-nigeria/

Ecobricks from bottles

The ECOBRICK EXCHANGE project encourages environmental awareness, reduced littering, and recyling with its goal to produce an eco-construction product – bricks.

The EcoBrick is an alternative for standard building material , made from a plastic bottle filled with refuse. The project ensures community involvement and upliftment by creating social events (parties) where bricks are made and other skills or products can be exchanged. Construction itself is another project goal:  One such project is the rebuilding of a township school, with the aim to also build ongoing relationships there , via social events and activities.

For more information, contact:  Ms. Kinga Mnich, ecobrickexchange@gmail.com.

From PET to PEF – Recycling continues

The Dutch company Avantium (http://www.avantium.com/)  has developed a novel process for the creation of bioplastics (PEF) from plant based materials  (waste paper, sugar cane, agricultural waste, corn). PEF is a  100% biobased polyester with better properties than existing packaging materials. Partners in the development are Coca-Cola Company, Danone and ALPLA.  PEF bottles leave a more modest ecological footprint than PET bottles.  They are compatible with existing recycling streams. See for details the video on http://avantium.com/yxy/YXY-technology.html.

Films on bottle recycling

If you think about a business recycling plastic bottles, it is good to have an idea how bottles are processed after collection. A number of films on YouTube give you a good picture. A good example is:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyF9MxlcItw

 

Other films are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCol2bnANiQ   (Do you know Levis jeans is now making jeans from used plastic bottles. 8 bottles used for making one jeans. How it works, lets see How plastic bottles are recycled into polyester.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpGr22a1_BE  (Polygenta Technologies Limited is a leading producer of recycled Polyester Filament yarn from 100% post-consumer PET bottle in Indian Subcontinent. The plant is located in Nasik, India and has a production capacity of 10,000 MT per annum.)

 

 

Bottles as Bricks

“Plastic bottles are increasingly becoming a menace to the environment due to the chemicals used in the manufacture, improper use and disposal. As noted by Plastics Industry (2011) reusing plastic bottles may seem safe, but a chemical found in reusable plastic bottles, known as Bisphenol A (BPA), is suspected of posing a health risk to human beings. That’s why the German carpenter Andreas Froese had the idea to use the bottles to construct houses or cisterns. When the bottles are filled with soil or sand they work as bricks and form a framework for walls or pillars. Plaster made of clay or a cement mixture fills the space between all bottles while a roof made of wood or corrugated metal completes the house. As only regional products are used the houses are cheap and can be afforded even by poor families. Additionally the method has so far proven to be earthquake resistant and allows short construction periods. This project intends to investigate the application of plastic bottles as one of the urban wastage in buildings construction and that how it can lead to sustainable development. It also mentions some ways for self-standing and insulating them in thermal and sound points of views and some positive points which this material have versus others. At the end, it concluded that in different factors such as time of execution, cost, load capacity, flexibility, reducing waste and energy efficiency, plastic bottles may be more effective compared to some conventional building materials such as brick, concrete and ceramic block.”

From: https://seminarprojects.com/showthread.php?tid=125353&google_seo=WePE+++++++++++++++++++&pid=210752

Plastic Soup Foundation starts bottle hunting

Have a look at www.trashhunters.org !

Turn a nuisance into business!

Millions of plastic bottles are thrown away every day. They form a burden for the environment. Collecting and recycling these bottles could generate income for many people in low-income countries. This website will collect examples of such projects, which could inspire other initiatives.