This is the waste from a few months of part production of one of our best customer's Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight-Polyethylene Radomes. We take 6" diameter chunks of virgin PE, and cut out about 90% of the material. The good side is they get the engineered parts they need, the bad side is all this waste!
For a year or two, we called around to find someplace that would recycle this plastic material, to no avail. Finally, a solution dropped right into our lap when a plastic recycling processor moved their operation into Taylors Mill! It's now close enough that we can carry the bagged waste over for recycling BY FOOT! (and we can re-use our bags, since they're clean and dry after just holding plastic turnings).
Ok, super cool....but not cool enough. If you've been reading about the plastic waste issue world wide, you know that most plastic is only partially recyclable. Vast quantities of this artificial pollutant are ending up on the ground, in the streams, the ocean, and (really bad) in animals stomachs. This is a problem that we humans should have been more on top of (a huge understatement).
In this very local example, my goal is to be making these parts by injection moldlng (wasting 90% less plastic) within a year. It may require some redesign and expensive tooling, but just look at those boxes of waste. They need to NOT end up in the ocean.
Longer term, we need to be designing with these things in mind, and humans need to have REDUCTION of resource use in mind at all times. We've got a long way to go. Awareness is the first step, check out http://www.bagitmovie.com/ and get a closer look at how plastic production, use, and "disposal" are affecting our environment.
For a year or two, we called around to find someplace that would recycle this plastic material, to no avail. Finally, a solution dropped right into our lap when a plastic recycling processor moved their operation into Taylors Mill! It's now close enough that we can carry the bagged waste over for recycling BY FOOT! (and we can re-use our bags, since they're clean and dry after just holding plastic turnings).
Ok, super cool....but not cool enough. If you've been reading about the plastic waste issue world wide, you know that most plastic is only partially recyclable. Vast quantities of this artificial pollutant are ending up on the ground, in the streams, the ocean, and (really bad) in animals stomachs. This is a problem that we humans should have been more on top of (a huge understatement).
In this very local example, my goal is to be making these parts by injection moldlng (wasting 90% less plastic) within a year. It may require some redesign and expensive tooling, but just look at those boxes of waste. They need to NOT end up in the ocean.
Longer term, we need to be designing with these things in mind, and humans need to have REDUCTION of resource use in mind at all times. We've got a long way to go. Awareness is the first step, check out http://www.bagitmovie.com/ and get a closer look at how plastic production, use, and "disposal" are affecting our environment.