News

Wringing power from plastic

YOUR old toothbrushes, plastic bottle tops and bread tags could soon end up powering tractors and forklifts, if the City of Cape Town has its way.

Last month, the city launched a R10m pilot project backed by the Japan International Co-operation Agency to extract oil from plastic that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Japanese companies CFP Corporation and Kanemiya have installed a waste-to-oil plant at the Kraaifontein Integrated Waste Management Facility, capable of converting 500kg of plastic into 500 litres of oil per day.

The city recycles only 16% of its waste, far shy of the 25% target in the government’s 2011 National Waste Management Strategy.

New recycling plant to melt away tire mountain

The massive mountain of unwanted tires in Seth Ward could be gone within a year after Corpus Christi-based NeoWaste opens a planned recycling plant in Plainview.

Two representatives of the company, Vice President Gil Bartee and Sales Manager Tony Altemus, outlined their company’s plan to locate a demonstration plant in Plainview to Hale County commissioners at Friday’s work session.

Company representatives already have met with the Plainview-Hale County Economic Development Corporation and are negotiating to acquire a five-acre tract the PHCEDC owns at 1535 Industrial Blvd. “It’s a perfect site to build our Tire Pyrolysis Plant,” Bartee said at Friday’s session.

A TECHNIQUE TO END THE MENACE OF PLASTIC

A city-based environmental scientist has proposed a technique that can kill two birds with one stone: It will put an end to the menace of non-biodegradable plastic wastes and discarded tyres which host dengue- and malaria-causing mosquitoes; and it will do so by recycling the plastic and tyres by breaking them into smaller molecules transforming them into usable fuel for industrial boilers and furnaces besides in generating electricity.

Dr Rinku Verma, environmental scientist at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS)-Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) has proposed setting up plastic and discarded tyres recycling units which uses a technique called pyrolysis.

Pyrolysis is a chemical reaction which involves molecular breakdown of larger plastic molecules into much smaller ones in the presence of heat ranging between 4500 Celsius and 6000 Celsius. But it has to be done in the absence of oxygen to prevent burning that is extremely harmful for health and environment.

Now Reuse the Old Tyres, This 16 Year Old Has the Solution

BENGALURU: Non-Bio degradable wastes are as harmful to the ozone as our own carbon emissions. Anubhav Wadhwa is just 16 years of age but perhaps he knows more about the value of protecting our environment than the rest of us, according to indiatimes.com.

The innovating idea about the method of disposal of old vehicle tires came to him as one day he saw some pile of tires being burnt on the side of the road. He then wondered what if these tyres can be made reusable. He googled about it and came to know that if undergoes a process called ‘Pyrolysis’, it is reusable.

Gurgaon boy designs site to collect old tyres for proper disposal

In an attempt to ensure that used tyres are disposed properly, a 16-year-old boy from the city has designed a website which will serve as an aggregator of such tyres.

The web portal, Tyrlessly, created by Anubhav Wadhwa was launched this month. Anubhav is a student of Pathways World School, Aravali.

Anubhav said the idea of creating a website like this came to his mind when he saw someone burning used tyres one day. The incident left him wondering what happens to all the discarded tyres.

He checked the internet and learnt that burning of tyres releases many toxic gases and is a major environmental hazard.