Two great package recycling ideas
Idea #1: Make a Roof Tile
Dr. David Saiia of Duquesne University has developed a hand-cranked machine to allow people in developing countries to make roof-tiles from plastic bottles. The machine helps cut the plastic bottle into strips, which are then attached to bamboo slat to build the tile.
In addition to help recycle plastic packaging, this idea provides partial solutions to several other developing-world problems. Some of these are:
- Provide a super-cheap construction material that is better than the alternative
- Provide jobs with low skill level requirements
- Eliminate packaging waste openly discarded near high-poverty areas in the developing-world
Idea #2: Build a Bridge
WorldArchitectureNews.com reports that a start-up named Vertech built a 50 ton / 100 feet bridge from recycled plastic in Wales. This is also a truly innovative idea.
Recycling plastic bottles in products like plastic park benches and fences for your backyard have been successfully done before. These tried and true ideas and their products are around us every day. What is unique about this particular idea is its sheer scale. This is as massive a recycle scale as we have ever seen for recycled plastic.
This idea has several other strengths:
- It is equally applicable to solving recycling problems in the developing- as well as the developed-world
- Building a 50 ton bridge will presumably require close to as many tons of plastic to be recycled. In other words, this is a bulk recycling idea, which makes tons plastic disappear at a time.
- This is an industrial level solution not requiring consumer level stringency to recycling.
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