Precious Plastic Project¶
It is a project that aims to make final product out of recycled plastic using two machines, Plastic Shredder + Plastic Injection. Our source of information was precious plastic site which helped us in gaining knowledge about plastic, machines building & working process.
Background¶
Over the past decade, plastic waste has become a major issue, both on land and at sea. In a little over a century, plastic has gone from being hailed as a scientific wonder to being reviled as an environmental scourge. As awareness of plastic pollution has risen over the last few years, some projects started collecting plastic, transforming plastic waste into shredded plastic and then new products. However, our society still doesn’t see the true value of plastic – we believe our products can help change that perception.
Mission¶
Our mission in RRR is to be part of healing the earth planet by recycling as much plastic as possible into useful products. Besides making products, we want to provide interactive workshops to schools, businesses, and individuals who are interested in learning more about the problem of waste and the process of recycling plastic into new products. This will help people see plastic waste transformed into something valuable, and help them reduce plastic waste in the future.
Vision¶
Protecting the environment by reducing plastic waste dramatically and raise cultural awareness of plastics values. Provide more than one facility that can help individuals to recycle plastic waste into valuable products.
Values¶
• Sustainability
• Environmental Responsibility
• Teamwork
• Initiative and Creativity
• Efficiency and Productivity
• Determination
• Partnership with Civil Societies
Strategic Goals¶
• Form partnership with different entities and communities
• Serve Bahrain Vision 2030 – part related to SDGs of United Nations such as goal 12 that states “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”
• Source out plastic
• Setup facility to produce a valuable product
• Raise a campaign in social media about this topic
Objectives¶
• Plastic literature review
• Have a facility to handle recycling and repurposing of plastic
• Source plastic and produce products
• Be part of the solution
• Impact people into changing their way
Planned Action¶
Plastic literature review - Research - To know the plastic types and its differences - Contact subject matter experts and entities working in the field
Have a facility to handle recycling and repurposing of plastic
- Building up two machines: shredder and injection – Assembly, electronics, and
fabrication of some attachments.
- Arrangement with a workshop to make some of the parts
- Have an enough space for both machines in FabLab Bahrain
Source plastic and produce products - Contact different plastic suppliers - Design different molds for different products - Use the molds to produce outcomes
Be part of the solution - Reduce plastic pollution by recycling plastic - Establish collecting plastic point in FabLab Bahrain
Impact people into changing their way - Providing workshops - Engaging with communities - Raise a campaign
Performance Measures¶
- Efficiency: how much we are using vs. how much we are producing
- Effect on society : how many visits per week
- Surface finish of the output
if you need further information you can visit the site.
- Click here to visit the site
What is Plastic ?¶
Plastics are synthetic chemicals extracted mainly from petroleum and made of repeated cycle of hydrocarbons (chains of hydrogen and carbon atoms). Most plastics are polymers and they are everywhere Due to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture and versatility.
you can find more information about that in the following video
Plastic types¶
The General classification of plastics is as following:
1- Thermoset plastics contain polymers that cross-link together and create an irreversible bond. The problem with this type is once made it cant be melted nor recycled to return to its previous state and it is the most dangerous on environment
2-Thermoplastics is a plastic polymer which becomes soft when heated and hard when cooled. Thermoplastic materials can be recycled through melting and shaping it once again
3- Elastomers or rubbers which has more flexibility than the other two types
Thermoplastic further classification¶
Thermoplastic is the most popular & used type of plastics up to 80% it cover under it many types as you can see in the following image each has its own recycling number
-PET (1): Polyethylene terephthalate is a very strong plastic that can be easily recognized for its transparent look. examples bottles jars, combs, bags, carpets and ropes, and is recycled more commonly. This plastic is a bit more complex to work with and not recommended to be used in our project due to its harmful fumes during processing.
-HDPE (2): High-density polyethylene often used in containers, milk bottles, motor oil, shampoo bottles, soap bottles, detergents, bleaches, toys and bottle caps. Products of this plastic types are often easier to collect sorted and clean. HDPE works very well with Precious Plastic machines
-PVC (3): Polyvinyl chloride is toxic(chloride) and not to be worked with (not recommended). It is found in plumbing pipes
-LDPE (4): Low-density polyethylene is largely used for plastic wrap, sandwich bags, squeezable bottles, and plastic grocery bags. It can be recycled in two ways either using precious plastic machines or ironing them into a more durable textile.
-PP (5): Polypropylene is one of the most commonly available plastics on the market, it is strong and can usually withstand higher temperatures. PP used for products food and drink. PP works very well with Precious Plastic.
-PS (6): Polystyrene or Styrofoam. PS can be recycled, but not efficiently it requires huge amount of energy. Disposable coffee cups, plastic food boxes, plastic cutlery and packing foam are made from PS. It works very well with Precious Plastic but needs so special attention please for it toxicity.
- There are other types which is usually mix with different concentrations of the above.
Warning ⚠️ Do not mix plastics this will decrease quality and make it very difficult to be recycled. Moreover, when different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase-separate, like oil and water, and set in layers resulting in structural weakness.
Melting temperatures¶
The following figure shows melting temperatures
Shredding Machine¶
This machine is the starting point of Precious Plastic recycling process. It works through the blades to cut the plastic into small flakes. These flakes is then used in other machines after melting them.
BOM¶
Bill of material issued by the site which then we used to find what we can purchase directly, what to be ordered and workshops to fabricate
Blueprints¶
For more details visit precious plastic site and download shreeder kit
Workshop¶
After having the blueprints of the shredding machine we went to the workshop to fabricate it. New Island Contracting which specialize in steels
There we learned about different machines that can help in doing different steel parts of the shredding machine
Shredder parts were made by plasma milling machine. Cheapest products come from this machine with bad surface finish. so after that we need to improve the surface finish
Instructions¶
As we discussed type of plastics above we will use as recommended 4 types
PS
PP
HDPE
LDPE
Injection Machine¶
Injection machine is the one that use the small flakes coming out of the shredding machine to melt it and then insert it into different molds
BOM¶
Bill of material issued by the site which then we used to find what we can purchase directly, and what to be ordered or fabricated by Workshop
Blueprints¶
You can find it with more details in precious plastic site under injection kit
Workshop¶
same workshop used in shredding machine were used here to make the steel parts (Frame) of the injection machine and weld the required parts and we did the rest including Assembly.
Frame
We fixed the remaining parts and position the frame in the space we have in Fablab
Electronic Box First we extracted some electronics and heaters from previous project ,which can be used exactly in our project
Then we done the design of the box through Fusion 360
The box assembly was not perfect joint were not the best fit so we used glue instead to attach them after that fitting the electronics with the heaters
Wire Connection Guide
Final Results of Injection
Molds
This part is very tricky and requires many experiments so we intended to start with experimental mold. To do so we calculated the volume of the pipe where the material going to be compressed to the mold this will help us in identifying the volume required for the mold.
- Diameter of the rod= 26mm
- Radius = 13mm = 1.3cm
- Height= 33cm
- volume = pir^2h
- v=pi(1.3)^233
- v= 175.2 cm^3
Connections¶
This section will show the engagement with other entities to gain info, support project or to do workshop job and to provide items
New Island Construction : Helped us in some parts fabrication especially steel parts
Clean Up BH Entity related to cleaning and recycling all types of wastes we contact them through instagram to find plastic waste but their was no effective response
| Name | Contact Details | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Recycle Point | https://recyclepointsbh.com Instagram: @recyclepointsbh | No Response |
| Clean Up Bahrain | Instagram: @cleanupbahrain | No Response |
| eBin | Instagram: @ebinrecycles No. 34171888 | Pending |
| Abraj Aluminum | No. 66646620 | No Match |
| Crown Industry | No. 39466431 | Success |
| Scrash | No. 38245211 | Pending |
| AlMajed Plastic & Metal Recycling Factory | http://www.recyclebahrain.net Site visit | Success |
| SCE | No. 36605033 | Pending |
| New Island Construction | Site visit | Success |