THINGS THAT MATTER: Plastic Pollution – Problems and Possible solutions
“Plastic or planet – which will it be?” That was the title and theme of my column of two weeks ago, and it generated what we Bajans call a “beriffle” of enthusiastic, even passionate responses – embellishing, giving examples, and pointing out solutions being tried all over the world. So today I want to share a few of these examples of plastic re-use – some simple, some brilliant, some totally visionary. Can we try any of them here in Barbados or, working together in CARICOM?
The first suggestion I received was a sensible approach to dealing with the nemesis of our roads – potholes. A single heavy rain breaks the surface of our roads, and the wear and tear of exponentially increasing pickup trucks and heavy-duty trucks soon produces pot-holes, woks and witches’ cauldrons all over the roads. The website https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261306911004225 describes an economical approach to road paving using waste plastic bottles – PET bottles – and taking advantage of the properties of the PET (polyethylene Terephthalate). It seems that a series of increasing proportions of a mixture of the PET with a stone mastic asphalt (SMA) mixture was tested and 6% by weight was found to create the strongest mixture. This would be a win-win project – re-using the plastic waste and creating stronger roads.
A well-established approach to re-cycling plastic is the conversion to what is known as plastic lumber. All kinds of plastic materials can be processed into pellets and moulded into lumber or furniture or other uses. These include outdoor deck floors, railings, fences, park benches and garden furniture, mouldings and trim, window and door frames, and roof tiles. You name it! Surely such an industry is possible here, perhaps in collaboration with other CARICOM countries? I understand there was an attempt at a plastic based roof tile project, but economies of scale may have defeated it at that time.
A novel approach to recycling of plastic drink bottles has been developed in Guatemala by an organisation called Hug it Forward. Their main goal is to share their so-called eco-brick technology with anybody, anywhere in the world and the Bottle School Manual, a free step-by-step guide, is the vehicle for working towards that goal. The eco-brick is a plastic bottle filled with any kind of waste material to increase its density and provide rigidity. Walls are then built by piling these eco-bricks in rows on one another between two layers of chicken wire, and plastered with cement. It’s rather like the nineteenth century Barbadian technique for building interior walls of lathe and plaster (commonly called lather and plaste!) Unkown to our modern generation, a lathe and plaster wall comprised two parallel vertical layers of lathes (narrow wooden strips), an inch or so apart, filled with a mixture of small stones and wood shavings to give it rigidity, and then plastered on both sides. Like this ancient technique the eco-brick walls are labour intensive, but they have proved to be an exceptionally cheap construction method, engaging whole communities.
An even more novel approach to plastic waste clean-up was reported in the Barbados Advocate on Saturday September 8th, with the title “Giant plastic catcher heads for Pacific Ocean clean-up”. This is the brainchild of a Dutchman Boyan Slat. His far-fetched idea finally received major investment backing and with massive engineering skills a vast plastic collection system has been created. “System 001” was launched from San Francisco on September 9th, just a few days ago, into the Pacific Ocean. Its target is the Great Garbage Patch of the Pacific.
The device is like a giant snake, made up of sections of tubing, in all 600 metres long. It will float in a giant U shape, with a screen hanging down beneath it three metres down, and will drift with the ocean currents, a little faster than the plastic, shepherding it into a dense mass. Every six weeks a ship will travel out to scoop up the concentrated plastic and take it back to land to be re-cycled.
One of my favourite examples of recycling is that of the shipping container, because I applied it to create a modern, high tech biotechnology laboratory at the George Alleyne-Chronic Disease Research Centre – The Edmund Cohen Laboratory for Vascular Research.
Apparently there are more than 700 000 shipping containers sitting idly at ports and other places due to lack of demand. The idea of creating a lab from a container was hatched when I visited The Pavilion at Hastings, when it was undergoing its magnificent restoration for a restaurant and conference centre. I saw the “site office” – a shipping container, adapted with windows, door, plumbing and electrical wiring. “Eureka”, I thought, because neither the University nor the Queen Elizabeth was able to provide laboratory space for Dr. Clive Landis, who was joining the CDRC staff.
I called Clive excitedly (he was still in London) and asked him if a forty-foot container of 320 square feet was enough space, and if he would specify the wiring, electrical fittings, bench construction, plumbing and all lab fittings he needed. The company Containers & Equipment produced a magnificent lab, a crane placed it next to the Centre, and the connecting door joined it to the main building. The total cost was $100 per square foot (funded by the generous Mr. Edmund Cohen, creator of Courts), compared to the going estimate of a standard concrete block construction with fittings of more than $300 per square foot. A triumph, multiplied many times over by the magnificent research carried out by Professor Landis and his team, in our shipping container!
An amazing entrepreneur Wanona Satcher has created a Start Up operation to create affordable housing – really low cost affordable – from shipping containers. See “A Start-up Transforming Shipping Containers in to Tiny Affordable Housing”, by Anne Field. And they have many uses.
Of course, a big part of the solution to getting rid of garbage is the tried and proven mass burn plant as in Singapore. They generate electricity and are now used worldwide where land is at a premium price and very scarce. I understand Singapore has six of them, and Singapore, like the Scandinavian countries, provides a model for environmental management.
As a nation we must talk together and work together to Reduce, Re-use and Re-cycle.
(Professor Fraser is Past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Website: profhenryfraser.com)