A Sydney business is looking to clean up Pacific beaches with a unique recycling process, turning plastic litter into power poles and Frisbees.
Sam Melrose and university intern Lily Bilston showing how a toy truck containing a cocktail of different plastics can be shredded and reused.Geoff Germon, an adjunct professor of design at Canberra University and Talon’s chief executive, said the system was an opportunity to remove and reuse vast quantities of plastic littering Pacific beaches.
“Conventionally, you would have to sort waste into polyethylenes and polypropylenes, which are the common packaging plastics,” Germon said.“Then you might have some car parts, which are ABS and some polycarbonates and some PT , which is all the clear plastic bags and bottles.” Lead project manager Sam Melrose said their process could manage the several different types of plastic in, for example, a discarded swimming pool filter.“It all goes in the shredder, and we use the material that comes out. Even if the item has a paper label on it, it doesn’t affect us.”