MOSCOW, November 14. Siberian Federal University scientists proposed a special attachment for an excavator bucket that crushes plastic waste during loading. According to them, the device will help compact large containers and ensure a more complete loading of vehicles without requiring additional equipment. This was reported by the press service of the university.
According to experts, the issue of plastic recycling is becoming increasingly acute. The world produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste per year, and it takes more than 450 years to decompose naturally. Therefore, the most environmentally friendly option to eliminate the problem of landfills is to reuse waste materials.
The production of products made from such waste takes place in chemical plants. However, the delivery of the resource itself incurs considerable costs, and some landfills do not have expensive machines for pressing large plastic containers with a volume of 1 m3, the so-called Eurocubes, which are widely used for storing flammable substances and other aggressive chemicals. Accordingly, not all industries can recycle waste.
Scientists from Siberian Federal University (SFU) have presented an alternative method for processing plastic containers. Instead of classical grinding and pressing, the authors of the development propose using a special attachment on the bucket of an excavator manipulator, which will crush liquid tanks without separating them from the metal sheathing. This technology does not require the purchase of additional equipment, therefore it will halve the cost of transporting already compressed material.
““The compaction method consists of applying force to crush a plastic container in a certain geometry while simultaneously cutting a through hole to drain the remaining liquid into a tray,” said Tatyana Kulagina, head of the department of technospheric and environmental safety at Siberian Federal University.
The device was developed to solve the issue. with plastic waste dumps in the remote northern and arctic territories of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but can be used in any areas where there is no high-tech equipment.
The scientific team aims to offer solutions to other problems related to processing : recycling of used oils, treatment and use of wastewater from power plants.
Siberian Federal University is a participant in the Russian state program for supporting universities «Priority-2030» of the national project «Science and Universities».
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