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.
After many trials and research I’ve been able to fuse together dirty, mixed contaminated plastics into usable blocks.
I’ll shortly be crowd funding to commercialise this, 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.
I’ve uploaded an image showing what I’ve done so far.
wow nicely done!
It would be interesting to know more about it!
Do you use precious plastics machines?
When you say “contaminated”, with what is it contaminated?
And what kinds of plastics do you mix?
Thanks for sharing!!
hi kahlid … i just read your inbox … I’m not an expert on plastic but i used to teach chemistry … you should sort plastic into some main categories …
…. long carbohydrogen chains like ldpe,hdpe and even pp shredder … not above 200 Celsius and not containing circular structures like like ps
once you have more experience, sort out also pp …
… carbohydrogen structure that contain rings like ps and heat them as hot as around 230 celcius… don’t mix them with pe or pp as they won’t connect
… don’t add pvc or other compounds containing chlorine … reaction could create dioxines and other kinds of poison …
if you make sticks and boards it’s alright to have contamination in them as compact material doesn’t enter the food chain or damage animals … decades later people may bury it somehow without any harm in concrete walls etc.
… go on in your search and try no to breathe gases … i hope this is useful for you … wolfi
I spent a lot of my own personal money promoting my idea and attempting to CrowdFund a commercial scale process but unfortunately it didn’t work.
I have had many positive and negative comments regarding what I done and ultimately my aim was to try to take trash and turn it into something usable without any complicated or costly processes involved. Regardless of the material type, cleanliness or prior usage I wanted to be able to accept anything and turn it into something useful.
I conducted no trials as to the strength or usablility of the product other than to play around with it myself. It could easily be sanded or cut and my idea was to create bar lengths that could be used to create furniture like tables and chairs. When those items became damaged or old they could be recycled again to create more raw material for manufacturing.
Despite my failures I learned a lot and I’m pleased there’s actually a viable company doing something even better than what I attempted. UK company Recyling Technologies takes waste plastic and heats it to its melting point to create an oil that is resold back to manufacturers. My hope is that this will turn global and we’ll reverse the damage we have done to the World.
Hey there @khalidkhames
Just so i understand the topic correctly; the photo shows part 1 & 2 complete and 3rd image would be through crowdfunding ?
If so i am sorry to say that i am kinda sceptical on your process. How could random “plastics & other materials/liquids” just be put together in big temperature and obtain a new “material”, which would be… totally random depending on what has been put together?
I really don’t want to be mean in any way, but please think your process through or maybe explain more ? because i have a lot of difficulties understanding the logic of this
Well remember to clean your plastic!
Even companies who also mixes plastics are washing their materials, as you newer know the toxidity dangers of what is being mixed.
This will also affect your outcome, as @clementhempel also says.
Try only to mix your material if you have to. Like when recykling products that is made of parts from different types of plastic, BUT SORT THE PLASTIC WHEN YOU CAN!
The plastic you are fusing can not be recykled again easily, and you will not help the envioment that much.
Please do alot of research before going on with this
I can definitely see the appeal, but i would say that the use would be limited to non structural applications, as there would be a quite a large difference in how it behaves from batch to canh, simply due to the fact that the exact makeup of the end material would vary quite a lot, and due to the fact that it is rather contaminated by dirt, degraded plastic and so on.
Not trying to shoot down the idea at all, i’m just hoping to add something to the conversation:)
Have you done any tests on the resulting material, such as measuring it’s tensile strength? This would be useful if you want to propose it as an alternative to eg. timber or metal.
The material was contaminated as it contained various non-plastic elements. For example the toothbrushes had toothpaste on them, the packaging food and the bottles liquid.
