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Khalid khalidkhames

Want to join my worldwide team?

10/01/2018 at 14:32

Hello Precious Plastic people!

My name is Khalid and I reside just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the United Kingdom. I began investigating the issue of plastic waste whilst trying to reduce my company’s recycling costs.

The main problem (if you aren’t aware) is that many plastics are not recycled as there is no perceived value, so they end up in the bin. Recycling companies want to collect waste for a fee and sell it on for a fee (like paper). When they have a waste like plastic bottles – which typically contain 3 types of plastic – they don’t want to invest the time and money separating it so it’s sent to landfill.

Recycling companies aren’t innovators, they have no real desire to play about with plastic waste to make usable products. If they can’t sell it on they dump it.

That is where i come in…

After many trials and research I’ve been able to fuse together dirty, mixed contaminated plastics into usable blocks. Here’s the post – http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/ive-successfully-fused-mixed-contaminated-plastic/

I’ll shortly be crowd funding to commercialise this as a non-profit, giving away (FOR FREE) the lengths of extruded material as alternatives to precious timber or metal, reducing our environmental impact whilst diverting waste away from landfill.

The fused material is very strong and with a little colouring should turn into really solid black lengths, perfect for making outdoor furniture, fence posts, support beams and more.

A single operation could result in up to 960 tonnes of plastic waste diverted from landfill, but that needs to be replicated worldwide to really solve the plastic waste problem.

I’ve will shortly be crowdfunding to open the first centre. Should it be successful I will need the following in due course;

1. Researchers / Developers – should the campaign be successful my intentions would be to fly in and accommodate some researchers who could either help refine the fusion process (a science/chemistry background preferable) to product the best usable material possible.

2. Non-profit centre operators – I want to replicate the centres Worldwide and train locals in running it, whilst creating employment and a circular economy. We’d take people (with a business background as you’ll be running a business) who will run the centre in our absence under the same banner and work to reverse the damage plastic has had on our environment.

I look forward to meeting people in due course!

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starter
01/02/2018 at 00:47

Hi I’ve just joined this network and came across your post, it sounds really interesting what you are doing good luck. I’d like to be able to make products from recycled beach plastics but haven’t a clue where to start (hence joining this forum) I have passion, business and creative skills but not much in the way of chemistry background.

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dedicated
01/02/2018 at 01:46

Very interesting, lease send the address to see and share the crowfunding.

dedicated
01/02/2018 at 12:26

Hey @khalidkhames thanks for your enthusiasm and good luck,
but I’d be very worried about this kind of thing:
When you mix unknown plastics plus other elements like dirt, you’ll be making something that will be even harder to recycle in the future, when it’s life cycle has ended.

It’s like with earthships, they look cool, they fill tyres with dirt, walls with glass bottles, etc. And you’re making a difference in the present as you’re recycling materials and given them an use, but what will happen when they demolish the house? How to recycle all that mixed stuff? it’s even harder.

I’d suggest to get in touch with https://wasteaid.org.uk/toolkit/ I have a contact there, they do something similar in developing countries

Also see the uk company http://www.plaswoodgroup.com/ they make cool planks of plastic, but only from one type of plastic, that’d keep it fully recyclable.

Cheers

warrior
01/02/2018 at 23:22

Hi @khalidkhames,

I agree with @javierrivera. This looks like a way to postpone landfilling plastic.
Here are a couple of points for you to consider:

1) Moulding blocks of mixed plastic and spreading them around, no matter how functional these are, would in a way be contaminating the area.
2) The energy spent on doing that could be used for properly recycling this plastic.

If I had a choice and an army of followers, I would rather look into developing a backyard plastic pyrolysis machine and use the energy to decompose it (benefits of pyrolysis are yet to be evaluated, at least for me as I haven’t researched it much)

starter
02/02/2018 at 12:10

Hey nice to meet you let’s keep in touch!

starter
02/02/2018 at 12:12

My studies have shown the plastic can be broken down and re-mixed again to create the same products over and over.

Whilst it is not a solution that will rid the World of plastic waste it is diverting it from landfill back into society until such times as we replace plastic with another, more environmentally friendly material.

starter
03/02/2018 at 20:44

Hello, seems like an interesting project you’ve started. Given the relevance to reducing wasting plastic and helping produce end life products for plastic, will you make your formula for fusing plastics open source?

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