Social [Plastic Waste] Startup turns trash into construction-grade building blocks

The latest idea is turning plastics and rubber into bricks.

Imagine how many low-cost housings can be build with the millions tons of recyclables that China no longer takes.



That's pretty cool

I dread to think of what our children will think of our complete disregard of the environment and their ability to live on this planet.
 
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I was gonna say the same thing, it's the Chinese pollution.

Also didn't Germany/EU say it would help generate revenue due to UK leaving the EU? Maybe that was something else.
 
The latest idea is turning plastics and rubber into bricks.

Imagine how many low-cost housings can be build with the millions tons of recyclables that China no longer takes.



They're doing it now in Colombia. A complete house can be put together like giant lego pieces in five days and cost less than $7000.

https://www.archdaily.com/869926/this-house-was-built-in-5-days-using-recycled-plastic-bricks

That looks pretty cool but I'm always skeptical. I find it hard to believe it's cheaper than conventional bricks. $7000 is a lot of money down here.
Regardless of that, something has to be done.
 
EU proposes ban on straws, other single-use plastics
Raf Casert, The Associated Press | May 28, 2018

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BRUSSELS -- The European Union has proposed banning plastic products like cotton buds, straws, stirs and balloon sticks when alternatives are easily available in an attempt to reduce litter spoiling beaches and ocean beds.

The European Commission said its proposal would seek to cut marine litter in half for the ten most prominent items and avoid environmental damage estimated at over $250 billion over the next dozen years.

EU Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that utensils would not be banned completely, but steps would be taken to have them made out of sustainable materials when possible.

"You can still organize a pick-nick, drink a cocktail and clean your ears just like before," Timmermans said.

He also made new proposals to ensure that it is the polluter that pays.

The proposal will be assessed by the EU parliament and member states but Timmermans hopes to see results before May 2019.

And unlike so many EU proposals that are immediately criticized by consumer and environmental groups as too little too late, the reaction was largely positive on Monday.

"The only way to stop plastics pouring into our oceans is to turn off the flow at its source: production," said Lasse Gustavsson, the European executive director of the environmental group Oceana, as he lauded the initiative.

European Green Party lawmaker Monica Frassoni also welcomed the initiative and added that "the scale of the problem means that we cannot rely on individual European countries to take action and must instead find a Europe-wide response."

The European Parliament has said that plastics production is now 20 times higher than in 1960s. The EU has also been spurred into action by China's decision to no longer import part of the bloc's waste.



Sea Turtles say thanks:



I thought the EU made about .28 of a percent of the mess. I don't think it is going to make a difference. Asia is where the mess comes from.
 
To be fair, the "least polluting countries" on the list achieve their stirling rank by exporting their trash to the "most polluting countries".

That practice will soon come to an end, and is the driving force behind this ban proposal.


Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling
By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura | Jan. 11, 2018

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Officials in Britain and the West are scrambling to cope with growing piles of plastics like this one in China.
Beijing banned the import of many recyclables on Jan.1.



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html
Hmmm, I was not aware that China used to import the trash.
 
I thought the EU made about .28 of a percent of the mess. I don't think it is going to make a difference. Asia is where the mess comes from.

I hear a similar complaints about why in Australia we shouldn't be doing more for the environment when we are insignificant in scale compared to major polluters. The answer surely has to be the same every time - how can we have any kind of moral ground if we won't do it ourselves? Do what I say not as I do?
 
If people would just live within their means. We don't need that much stuff to live on.
 
Went to a McDonalds yesterday. No straws. Just a sign "PLEASE ASK FOR STRAWS AT THE COUNTER".

Cba at all.

McDonald's will be experimenting with new kinds of straws soon in the U.K, starting with paper straws. I can't say how well they works because I have never use it. Perhaps out British friends in this thread can give us a review after trying them out!

For fucks sake, make them out of bamboo or hemp or something. I will pay 25 cents more.

As it turns out, straws made from, well, straws (like the good old days) cost only 8 bucks for a pack of 100. So yeah, environmental-friendly alternatives are already there, if we choose to shake this addiction to single-use plastics.


Glass straws? Straw straws? Here are some eco-friendly alternatives to plastic
David Carrig, USA TODAY | May 23, 2018

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The war on plastic straws is growing as more companies such as McDonald's and cites such as New York are facing pressure to find sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives that won't pollute our oceans, litter our beaches or wind up harming animals.

McDonald's shareholders on Thursday rejected a proposal that asked the fast-food giant to report on the business risks of using plastic straws and look for alternatives.

Despite the rejection, the fast-food giant has begun experimenting with using paper straws in its U.K. restaurants and making plastic straws available only on request.

It is estimated that more than 500 million single-use plastic straws are used and thrown away every day in the U.S. alone as Americans use them at an average rate of 1.6 straws per person per day, according to the National Park Service. That translates into 175 billion straws a year.

It's no wonder sea turtles are being found with plastic straws stuck up their noses.

Only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling, and "a staggering 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems," according to a 2016 study by the World Economic Forum.

A study by the University of California Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) found that 8 million metric tons of plastic trash end up in our oceans every year. That's equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.

And while plastic straws represent only a fraction of the overall tonnage of ocean plastic, they are less likely to make it into recycling bins, and their small size make them dangerous for marine animals and are consumed by fish.

This has led environmentalists and conservation groups to add plastic straws to the growing list of plastic products it is seeking to ban, tax or boycott in an attempt to reduce plastic waste.

The United Kingdom announced plans in April to ban the sale of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton swabs as the global war against plastic pollution gains momentum.

Straws oftentimes are not really needed when drinking a beverage, so simply refusing a straw is the most eco-friendly choice a person can make. But if you need to use or like to use a straw, there are alternatives.

"There are plenty of options for trash-free sipping. We all have a drawer of reusable silverware at home, so why not toss in a few reusable straws?" Nick Mallos, director of Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program, writes in the non-profit organization's Ocean Current blog.

Here are some of the top alternatives:

Straw straws

Before the invention of the modern-day paper and plastic straws, people were drinking beverages through stalks of grain such as wheat and rye grass, which were popular in the 1800s. Straws made out of straw, or natural grains, are still available, and though they may sound strange, they are biodegradable and eco-friendly alternatives to plastic straws. Current options: Harvest Straws are made from non-GMO grain grown without any chemicals. You can get a pack of 100 Hay Straws for $8.

Paper straws

Paper straws were created by Marvin Stone of Washington, D.C., who hated the gritty residue rye grass straws left as they broke down, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Stone wrapped strips of paper around a pencil and glued the strips together after removing the pencil. He switched to paraffin-coated manila paper to keep the straws from becoming soggy and patented the product in 1888. Paper straws remained popular until they were largely replaced by plastic in the 1960s.

Paper straws remain a single-use alternative to plastic straws. Some on the market now are made from renewable sources and are biodegradable. The non-profit Lonely Whale’s For A Strawless Ocean campaign chose Aardvark Straws as a preferred partner for its durable and biodegradable paper straws that decompose in just 45 to 90 days. Paper straws are also widely available at major retailers, but not all are biodegradable.

Metal straws

Straws made of aluminum, stainless steel and titanium are durable and more eco-friendly than single-use plastic straws since they are reusable. Many of these straws are made from high-quality metals and have brushes available for easy cleaning. Some are even bendable.

Bamboo straws

Straws made out of all-natural bamboo sourced from sustainable forests are a lightweight and reusable alternative to plastic straws. And they are great at tiki parties. Companies making bamboo straws include: Brushitwithbamboo.com, Bambuhome.com, Strawfree.org, Bambaw.

Glass straws

Glass is another material that can be used to make a reusable and durable alternative to the plastic straw. One advantage to a glass straw is that you can see through it to make sure it’s clean. A disadvantage is the potential risk of breakage. Seller Strawesome recommends cleaning its glass straws in the dishwasher or using a stainless steel straw cleaner.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...ternatives-plastic-straws-recyling/632993002/
 
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I hear a similar complaints about why in Australia we shouldn't be doing more for the environment when we are insignificant in scale compared to major polluters. The answer surely has to be the same every time - how can we have any kind of moral ground if we won't do it ourselves? Do what I say not as I do?

I had assumed the EU was not really polluting much but I guess they are.
 
For the longest time, I believe in the fairy tale that ALL the recyclable materials we drops off at the recycling centers would be taken care of at a recycling plants in our own states, and they magically turns into new products that would make Captain Planet proud.

As it turns out, we only cherry-pick the highest-quality stuff that's easiest to recycle with maximum returns. The rest are crushed into giant cubes about the size of your bedroom and off on a cargo ship to China.

We don't bother dealing with the low-quality recyclables, not because we don't have the technology or know-how, but because it would cost us WAY less in labor, raw material, and energy to simply produce new stuff rather than recycling old stuff.


California has a recycling crisis.
The only way to solve it is to stop making so much trash

By The Times Editorial Board | May 26, 2018
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Then I found out that most countries in Europe don't even recycle their shit at all. They have been relying on China to take care of all their recyclables for so damn long, they don't even know what to do with their plastic waste now even if they wanted to at this point.

Why cant we just burn it?? Use it as fuel??
 
Why cant we just burn it?? Use it as fuel??

A lot of these things when burned release far worse chemicals into the air than if you just buried them

Secondly, that's not how fuel works
 
I was gonna say the same thing, it's the Chinese pollution.

I thought the EU made about .28 of a percent of the mess. I don't think it is going to make a difference. Asia is where the mess comes from.

Posts like yours are the reason why I hate making threads.

How hard can it be to just reading the first page before jumping in the conversation?
 
The EU is half a billion people

I realize that. I am not in Europe but for some reason I thought that the EU had been doing some super human job of controlling pollution.
 
That looks pretty cool but I'm always skeptical. I find it hard to believe it's cheaper than conventional bricks. $7000 is a lot of money down here.
Regardless of that, something has to be done.

I think the real money-saving factor here is it only takes less than 5 days to build (assembles?) a house with these oversized lego blocks, in oppose to months. And you'll probably need a much smaller skilled work force to put them together.

There was an article a while back about a Welsh company that does the same thing, and they actually did the testings to verify that recycled-plastic bricks have four times the strength of concrete, twice the insulation, and fire/storm/water-proof.

Building a "recycled house" in Britain would cost £42,000.


New homes to be built from 18 tonnes of recycled plastic
By Emily Andrews for MailOnline

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It puts the fab into prefabricated. And goes some way to solving the huge problem of managing the mountains of rubbish we throw away.

For the latest use of recycled plastic is building family homes.

And the price? All yours, complete with bathroom, kitchen and plumbing, for £42,000 - although you will have to provide your own land.

A pioneering company is building three-bedroom houses with frameworks made entirely of recycled waste plastic - including thousands of water bottles.

Each house is made up of 18 tonnes of recycled plastic trash that would have been destined for waste tips across the country.

Which equals 9,000 old televisions or about 7,200 desk top computers.

And the special plastic is almost four times as strong as concrete and insulates the house twice as well, enabling house-holders to cut their heating bills in half.

It is fire, storm and wind proof and, being made of plastic, is naturally waterproof.


The firm, Swansea-based Affresol, uses material that cannot be recycled any other way, to make panels that bolt together to create low carbon homes.

Any plastic, from old patio chairs and tables to building fixtures and fittings, are ground down into small granules that are then fused together in a chemical reaction to make Thermo Poly Rock (TPR).

Forty TPR panels are then bolted together to form the load bearing frame of houses.

They can then be externally clad with brick, block or stone, with the interior insulated and plastered as any other house.

Managing director of Affresol, Ian McPherson, believes the company is solving the country's housing and recycling problems at the same time.

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He came up with brainwave three years ago, after selling his IT company, and teamed up with manufacturing expert Scott Phillips and the universities of Cardiff and Glamorgan.

Father-of-two Mr McPherson, 60, said: ‘The materials are stronger and lighter than concrete.

‘They are waterproof, fire retardant, do not rot and have great insulation.

‘We estimate the life of the houses at more than 60 years and after that they are recyclable.

‘We believe there is tremendous potential for this new product particularly with the growing focus on carbon reduction, low energy affordable homes and sustainability.

‘At the moment about 50 to 60 per cent of all plastic is recycled – we take the other 40 to 50 per cent and use it to make something really useful.

‘Individuals can buy houses from us or developers can buy in bulk.

‘This is a new kind of prefabricated house which helps the environment as well.

‘As a country we put far too much waste into landfill and this goes some way to helping solve the problem of all our rubbish.

‘It’s exciting to build something new out of things we throw away.’

The company has launched a range of eco-friendly homes and portable factory units with £140,000 of backing from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Affresol aims to have a pilot scheme of 19 houses built in Merthyr Tydfil up-and-running in the next few months once they receive accreditation from the Building Research Establishment.

And within three years their target is to build 3,000 homes - mainly for the social housing market - each year using 40,000 tons of waste

There would be a wide variety of homes with a typical construction cost of a semi-detached about £40,000 to £50,000- and taking just four days to erect the framework.

The company claim the eco-friendly homes, like the detached show home at its factory on Swansea West industrial park, could revolutionise the building industry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...w-homes-built-18-tonnes-recycled-plastic.html
 
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I realize that. I am not in Europe but for some reason I thought that the EU had been doing some super human job of controlling pollution.
Oh no, not at all.
 
Posts like yours are the reason why I hate making threads.

How hard can it be to just reading the first page before jumping in the conversation?

Why should that cause you to hate making threads? I learned something. I had it beat into me for a long time how the EU was leaving a tiny footprint compared to other developed areas. Now I know better.
 
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