In a recent fair held by my faculty, I get to see all the creations my seniors had made. One of the creations had caught my attention, because it’s a social project that turns plastic waste into a sort of fluid like dough. This dough could then be placed in a mould to be shaped.

The preferred plastic to be used would be hard plastic, such as bottle caps or shampoo containers. Thin plastic like mineral bottles can be used, but the process in shredding it will take longer. That’s right, the collected plastic will be shredded first before being melted. Only after it is shredded, would it be then heated and turned into a fluid like dough. A moulder is then placed under where the fluid like dough would exit. This dough could be shaped into anything, such as a brooch, a toy, or even a paving block which in turn can be made into a sidewalk. That is what amazes me.

Imagine if this machine were to be massively manufactured and turned into a larger model. Little by little the plastic waste can be turned into a sidewalk. Although in order to make the sidewalk, the paving block would need another component that is sand. Sand acts as a glue as well as a filler, so that the produced paving block would be thicker with no gaps in between. Sand also helps in making the paving block heavy, so if a flood were to happen, they wouldn’t just float away. Nevertheless, this invention is amazing and I hope it can be used as a solution in facing our plastic waste problem.

If you would like to know more, you can check out their Instagram @creatics.machine