Picture all the floating plastic the size of Texas located in the middle of the Pacific near Hawaii with an estimated three million tons of debris. This alone answers the question that plastics are a huge problem for our environment and health. Plastics biodegrade very slowly, it could take up to 600 years for a plastic bottle to decompose, therefore, even long after it is thrown away, whether it remains in the landfill or reaches the ocean, plastics look like they are here to stay. So what’s the answer?
“If you can’t beat them, join them,” we’ve all heard this adage before, but one company is taking this message one step further in the battle against plastics. 2K Manufacturing located in Luton, England, is taking on the challenge of turning our plastic trash into plywood, or Ecosheet. Their project is backed by Bovis a construction company who has tested the material. It might sound impossible given the mixed plastic waste found in landfills, however 2K has developed a technique that is proving to produce great results.
Using a powder-impression molding technique machines grind the plastics into powder then laying the powder over a polymer skin (and covering it with another skin) followed by sintering. Sintering is the process that turns the powder into the desired object by heating the materials until the particles adhere to each other (Economist).
2K projects that they will be able to make 360,000 sheets this year and plan to increase production next year. This scheme would help reduce the amount of plastics in landfills and our oceans. While we can’t “clean-up” the mess we’ve already created, by diverting the route from landfills to factory the amount of new plastics entering the environment can decrease.
There is an entire world of investments in the green sector. Someone’s trash is another’s treasure and 2K Manufacturing has struck gold.
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