In many developing countries, plastic waste management is left to citizens. This usually results in landfilling or hazardous open-air burning, leading to emissions that are harmful to human health and the environment. An easy, profitable, and clean method of processing and transforming the waste into value is required. In this context, this study provides an open-source methodology to transform low-density polyethylene drinking water sachets, into pavement blocks by using a streamlined do-it-yourself approach that requires only modest capital. Two different materials, sand, and ashes are evaluated as additives in plastic composites and the mechanical strength of the resulting blocks are tested for different proportion mix of plastic, sand, and ash. The best composite had an elastic modulus of 169 MPa, a compressive strength of 29 MPa, and a water absorptivity of 2.2%. The composite pavers can be sold at 100% profit while employing workers at 1.5× the minimum wage. In the West African region, this technology has the potential to produce 19 million pavement tiles from 28,000 tons of plastic water sachets annually in Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia. This can contribute to waste management in the region while generating a gross revenue of 2.85 billion XOF (4.33 million USD).

Keywords[edit | edit source]

composite; waste plastic; distributed recycling; LDPE; low density polyethylene; plastic sand composites; tensile strength; compressive strength; West Africa; economic development

Sand plastic composites[edit | edit source]

• The Potential of Replacing Concrete with Sand and Recycled Polycarbonate Composites: Compressive Strength Testing
• Potential of distributed recycling from hybrid manufacturing of 3-D printing and injection molding of stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate waste composite
• Evaluation of lab performance of stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate waste composites without asphalt as road surface materials
• Technical and Economic Viability of Distributed Recycling of Low-density Polyethylene Water Sachets into Waste Composite Pavement Blocks

See also[edit source]

• https://patentcenter.uspto.gov/applications/90015140

RepRapable Recyclebot and the Wild West of Recycling[edit source]

Recycling Technology[edit source]

• Recyclebot
• RepRapable Recyclebot: Open source 3-D printable extruder for converting plastic to 3-D printing filament
• Open Source 3-D Filament Diameter Sensor for Recycling, Winding and Additive Manufacturing Machines
• Improving recyclebot concepts
• 3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing
• Mechanical Properties of Direct Waste Printing of Polylactic Acid with Universal Pellets Extruder: Comparison to Fused Filament Fabrication on Open-Source Desktop Three-Dimensional Printers
• Fused Particle Fabrication 3-D Printing: Recycled Materials' Optimization and Mechanical Properties
• Mechanical Properties and Applications of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing
• Wood Furniture Waste-Based Recycled 3-D Printing Filament
• Solar powered distributed customized manufacturing
• Mechanical Properties of Ultraviolet-Assisted Paste Extrusion and Postextrusion Ultraviolet-Curing of Three-Dimensional Printed Biocomposites
• Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator
• Open-Source Grinding Machine for Compression Screw Manufacturing
• Sustainability and Feasibility Assessment of Distributed E-Waste Recycling using Additive Manufacturing in a Bi-Continental Context
• Finding Ideal Parameters for Recycled Material Fused Particle Fabrication-Based 3D Printing Using an Open Source Software Implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization
• Waste Plastic Direct Extrusion Hangprinter
• Hangprinter for Large Scale Additive Manufacturing using Fused Particle Fabrication with Recycled Plastic and Continuous Feeding

Distributed Recycling LCA[edit source]

• Tightening the loop on the circular economy: Coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing with recyclebot and RepRap 3-D printing
• Technical pathways for distributed recycling of polymer composites for distributed manufacturing: Windshield wiper blades
• Plastic recycling in additive manufacturing: A systematic literature review and opportunities for the circular economy
• Energy Payback Time of a Solar Photovoltaic Powered Waste Plastic Recyclebot System
• Life cycle analysis of distributed recycling of post-consumer high density polyethylene for 3-D printing filament
• Evaluation of Potential Fair Trade Standards for an Ethical 3-D Printing Filament
• Life cycle analysis of distributed polymer recycling
• Distributed recycling of post-consumer plastic waste in rural areas
• Ethical Filament Foundation
• Green Fab Lab Applications of Large-Area Waste Polymer-based Additive Manufacturing
• Systems Analysis for PET and Olefin Polymers in a Circular Economy
• Potential of distributed recycling from hybrid manufacturing of 3-D printing and injection molding of stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate waste composite
• Towards Distributed Recycling with Additive Manufacturing of PET Flake Feedstocks

Literature Reviews[edit source]

• Waste plastic extruder: literature review
• Life cycle analysis of polymer recycling literature review
• Solar powered recyclebot literature review
• Waste plastic extruder: literature review
• Life cycle analysis of polymer recycling literature review

Externals[edit source]

• Economist article on U. of Washington's HDPE boat, Oprn3dp.me
• https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/52444-ocean-plastic-community-project
• Another possible solution - reusable containers [1]
• Commercial https://dyzedesign.com/pulsar-pellet-extruder/
• ---
• Cruz, F., Lanza, S., Boudaoud, H., Hoppe, S., & Camargo, M. Polymer Recycling and Additive Manufacturing in an Open Source context: Optimization of processes and methods. [2]
• Investigating Material Degradation through the Recycling of PLA in Additively Manufactured Parts
• Mohammed, M.I., Das, A., Gomez-Kervin, E., Wilson, D. and Gibson, I., EcoPrinting: Investigating the use of 100% recycled Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for Additive Manufacturing.
• Kariz, M., Sernek, M., Obućina, M. and Kuzman, M.K., 2017. Effect of wood content in FDM filament on properties of 3D printed parts. Materials Today Communications. [3]
• Kaynak, B., Spoerk, M., Shirole, A., Ziegler, W. and Sapkota, J., 2018. Polypropylene/Cellulose Composites for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, p.1800037. [4]
• O. Martikka et al., "Mechanical Properties of 3D-Printed Wood-Plastic Composites", Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 777, pp. 499-507, 2018 [5]
• Yang, T.C., 2018. Effect of Extrusion Temperature on the Physico-Mechanical Properties of Unidirectional Wood Fiber-Reinforced Polylactic Acid Composite (WFRPC) Components Using Fused Deposition Modeling. Polymers, 10(9), p.976. [6]
• Romani, A., Rognoli, V., & Levi, M. (2021). Design, Materials, and Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing in Circular Economy Contexts: From Waste to New Products. Sustainability, 13(13), 7269. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7269/pdf