Story link: http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/plastic-recycling-garthe
Plastics arouse passions. The technos say plastics are omnipotent; that man's future will be fully served by its miracles. The greens say, plastics have no merits whatsoever and must be un-invented. Amidst slogans of "ban plastics" and "use plastics with care", the debate rages. Keeping a low public profile, petrochemical plants keep loading sacks of plastic granules on to an endless line of trucks. The people --you, me, the rich, the poor, the savvy and the innocent are using and throwing away plastic. The most committed amongst us are startled from time to time to learn how, despite our best efforts, plastic has crept into our lives. Damage done by plastic litter is getting deeper and more widespread; we have everywhere, the surreal slow-burn of piles.
It comes as a relief therefore, that there are creative realists at work, tackling the issue without passion. GoodNewsIndia has highlighted some of their work over the years. But the work we are about to review, is on an entirely different plane-- it has the potential to end the debate and turn the problem into an opportunity-- particularly for India. GoodNewsIndia therefore makes an exception to its publishing policy and features an idea rather than a realised project; that too, an idea of a non-Indian. It does so in the great hope that this article will motivate tens of concerned Indians to bring the idea to this country. With that preface, GoodNewsIndia introduces the little-known, pioneering work of James W Garthe, a Professional Engineer at the Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Which cycle?:
Industry says that plastics can be recycled. Environmentalists disagree-- they say plastics can only be 'down-cycled' in the sense, it can be converted to a lower-grade plastic product. What then is the fact? Fact is, plastics are extracted from petro-chemicals and the most that can be done is salvage as much of the calorific value as possible out of used plastic. That is the closest possible approximation to what is known as 're-cycling'. If well done, the only objection we could have to this approach, is the one we already have against the use of petro-fuels.
James Garthe's solution is along these lines, and it overcomes most major impediments in plastic waste management, such as:
1-- Nearly all known plastic re-cycling --or, down-cycling-- methods need sorting of waste by chemical type, a task that requires specially trained eyes
2-- Other pre-processes like cleaning, shredding, drying are often required, which are space-, capital- and labour- intensive.
3-- Plastic waste is dispersed, dirty and fluffy. When stuffed in bags it is too voluminous and uneconomical to transport over long distances.
4-- Down-cycling plants are too few, centralised and, capital- and skill- intensive, and far away from where waste is generated
5-- Energy put into reclamation is often higher than the energy realised in the product, reducing the whole exercise into one of social correctness, without any hard economic value
6-- Markets for reclaimed products are too specialised, controlled; therefore, realisable prices are arbitrarily set.
In short, the logistic, technical and marketing realms of plastic waste management are too opaque, specialised, unfriendly and uneconomical for you and me to be fully involved. The Garthe process addresses and solves all these problems.
The Garthe machine is a hydraulic compactor with a heated die. Roughly shred and cleaned waste is fed into the hopper, from where a ram pushes it into the heated die. At exit, the extrudate is sliced by a hot-knife into nuggets.
Without bias:
As an engineer with the Penn State University working with farmers, Jim Garthe was struck by both plastics' usefulness in agriculture --and the menace they become, as waste. He is therefore a man without any bias in the on-going debate on plastics. About 9 years ago, he built a small table-top machine which would compact rudimentarily shred mixed plastic waste and extrude them into well compacted sausages. These are then sliced by a hot knife into 'Plastofuel' nuggets. The nuggets may then be stored forever and transported economically.
In the Garthe machine, the die is heated just enough to fuse the outer skin of the nugget. The energy required for this is minimal. It is in fact a compaction process, readying the waste for storage and transportation. The calorific value in the plastic waste remains trapped. Thus, the energy gained from nuggets is more than what was put in to create them.
In well documented experiments, Garthe co-fired these nuggets in boilers along with coal, at very high temperatures to generate heat for farmers' horticultural greenhouses.
He writes: "Combustion tests were conducted in 2002 at Penn State's Energy Institute. Discarded, soiled watermelon mulch film and drip irrigation tape from farms in California, Florida and Pennsylvania were made into fuel nuggets, then co-fired with coal in five and 10 percent quantities based on heat value. All testing conformed to US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] standards.
"Regarding emissions, most of the tests conducted revealed that plastics indeed burn well with coal. Research on plastic-coal mixes has been done elsewhere in years past with good results. The presence of coal in the mix helps maintain the temperature of combustion around 1800-2200 degF, minimizing most emissions of concern. However, in the stoker simulator some of the samples were quite soiled, Florida in particular with sand, thus test results for dioxin emissions passed, but were disappointing. It is believed that the high ash content may have restricted air movement through the burn. The combustion team plans to continue testing in a full-scale unit soon to assure that emissions are in conformance with strict guidelines established by the US EPA."
Since then, interest in Plastofuel has grown. A South Korean firm has fabricated a burner that will combust Plastofuel directly, without any need to be mixed with coal. Patents have been filed for the process and research continues. Garthe says, nuggets maybe made in backyards or the production can be scaled up to industrial strength plants.
Markets for Plastofuel:
Sizable markets are emerging for Plastofuel and other plastic derived fuels [PDF]. Cement and steel majors are conducting trials using plastic waste as fuel adjunct, with a view to reduce energy costs. Cement giant LaFarge North America, Pa has begun trial burning waste plastic as a fuel supplement. These trials are being conducted with a close eye on emissions. The company is keeping local people informed and involved.
In well documented experiments, Garthe co-fired these nuggets in boilers along with coal, at very high temperatures to generate heat for farmers' horticultural greenhouses.
He writes: "Combustion tests were conducted in 2002 at Penn State's Energy Institute. Discarded, soiled watermelon mulch film and drip irrigation tape from farms in California, Florida and Pennsylvania were made into fuel nuggets, then co-fired with coal in five and 10 percent quantities based on heat value. All testing conformed to US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] standards.
"Regarding emissions, most of the tests conducted revealed that plastics indeed burn well with coal. Research on plastic-coal mixes has been done elsewhere in years past with good results. The presence of coal in the mix helps maintain the temperature of combustion around 1800-2200 degF, minimizing most emissions of concern. However, in the stoker simulator some of the samples were quite soiled, Florida in particular with sand, thus test results for dioxin emissions passed, but were disappointing. It is believed that the high ash content may have restricted air movement through the burn. The combustion team plans to continue testing in a full-scale unit soon to assure that emissions are in conformance with strict guidelines established by the US EPA."
Since then, interest in Plastofuel has grown. A South Korean firm has fabricated a burner that will combust Plastofuel directly, without any need to be mixed with coal. Patents have been filed for the process and research continues. Garthe says, nuggets maybe made in backyards or the production can be scaled up to industrial strength plants.
Markets for Plastofuel:
Sizable markets are emerging for Plastofuel and other plastic derived fuels [PDF]. Cement and steel majors are conducting trials using plastic waste as fuel adjunct, with a view to reduce energy costs. Cement giant LaFarge North America, Pa has begun trial burning waste plastic as a fuel supplement. These trials are being conducted with a close eye on emissions. The company is keeping local people informed and involved.
Nippon Steel in Japan, "aims to achieve a 10% reduction in energy consumption from the 1990 level by 2010 and an additional 1.5% reduction through the use of waste plastics." Its process is run captively and rather more involved than the Garthe method. "In the coking chambers of the coke oven, the waste plastics are heated to about 1,200 Deg.C in an oxygen-free condition and pyrolyzed. The charged plastics are pyrolyzed at 200 Deg.C to 450 Deg.C, generate high-temperature gas, and are completely carbonized at 500 Deg.C. Hydrocarbon oils and coke-oven gas are refined from the high temperature gas generated by pyrolysis, and the residue is recovered as coke." You can read the details in this illustrated PDF file [jump to pages 16 and 17]. \
Markets for Plastofuel nuggets in India will however be at the lower end. Already, waste plastic admixture with bitumen is well proven. Plastofuel nuggets may also be used in many industries --small and large-- to generate process heat, using suitable burners.
A road-map for India:
With proven technology and markets available, India needs but a few crucial interventions to turn plastic menace into an opportunity. GoodNewsIndia believes, the following initiatives are needed:
§Incentivise and mandate, village and city governments to gainfully employ locals to gather *all* plastic waste, at as few designated points as possible
§Incentivise and motivate, cottage level entrepreneurs to turn the waste into PDF nuggets or transport to the nearest nuggeting plant
§Mandate road laying contractors to use nuggets as extensively as feasible
§Incentivise the use of PDF by hotels, hospitals and process industries for their heat requirements.
Will that checklist do the trick? Not quite. There will be cost-gaps to be filled up, before the whole recycling idea will scale up, spread wide and pay for itself. And those gaps will have to be filled by the plastics industry in the form of a cess. After all, they enjoy a vast, prone market and it cannot be that their responsibility ceases at their gates.
In Europe, the idea of Extended Producer Responsibility [EPR] is firmly taking root. You can click here to learn more about it, but simply put, with EPR "responsibility for product is broadened beyond the emissions and effluents generated by the extraction or manufacturing processes, to the management of the product once it is discarded." Designing products for true recyclability and manufacturers paying for the sound disposal of packaging are all concepts widely established there. In India, low costs of plastics have resulted in profligate use, growing markets and high profits. A disposal cost built into the product will deter irresponsible consumption.
There is hope in that, serious stake-holders like Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, are already beginning to face the issue realistically. Addressing Plastindia in 2001, he said, "Our 21st century value systems are providing a pride of place for ecology and environment. This is intensifying the environment protection related demands on the plastic industry...we must work closely with Municipal/State authorities on putting in place effective systems of waste management and recycling."
Citizens' role:
Despite such sound-bites, industry seldom budges unless nudged. The stakes are high. India will be the third largest plastics consumer --at over 12 million tonnes per annum-- by 2010, after the US and China [Source]. Concerned Indians must actively lobby for an EPR Act in India adapted from Europe's experience, which will levy a cess on the industry to pay for the intiatives that will make plastics environmentally manageable.
They will face a formidable, slick lobby which, while making all the right noises, will do all it can to keep its wallet tightly zipped. For example, the Indian Center for Plastics in the Environment, [ICPE] says its objective is "to help sustain an environment friendly image of plastics". Accordingly it runs suave ads in the media extolling plastics virtues. A visit to this link will reveal a mindset far from accepting any responsibility for cleaning up. There are even hints of collusion with the government. That suspicion was confirmed recently by the revelation of a secret dossier by Outlook magazine, indicating that the government is blind to the threat of plastic waste.
For all that evidence, support for banning plastics is misplaced; the poor do use plastics. Calling for West-like personal responsibility in segregation and disposal, will not work; the poor are far too busy putting their lives together to have time for sorting and the like. Don't even try wishing away the plastic industry. What then are you left with? Push for win-win solutions. If you know another, let us know. If not, spend time assimilating the import of Jim Garthe's work and championing his approach. A simple way would be to mail this story, --which has all the links you need-- to all your friends and people who can influence.
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James W. Garthe
Office: 246 Ag. Eng. Bldg., University Park, PA 16802; phone:814.865.7154
Home: RR 1, Box 145, Petersburg, PA 16669;
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"Gobar Times", a publication of the highly respected "Down to Earth" magazine, has made some proposals on plastic waste management. The Garthe idea may be of some appeal to it, although it appears there is fundamental objection to even scientifically managed burning. In all fairness, readers must pay this link a visit before coming to any conclusion.
March, 2004