During a joint project to find ways to reuse hard to recycle plastic bottle caps Jesuit Social Services’ Ecological Justice Hub discovered one of the best tools is education.
The Jesuit Social Services’ Ecological Justice Hub recently showed that tackling hard to recycle plastics is not just something to be left to the giants of the recycling industry.
The Jesuit Social Services’ Ecological Justice Hub is a permaculture garden dedicated to both social and environmental justice. It uses ecological action to address disadvantage through education and training, demonstration projects, and community engagement.
Through a Sustainability Victoria grant, the hub purchased Precious Plastics Melbourne recycling equipment, including machines to shred single-use bottle caps and melt them into a resin that can be shaped into long-lasting durable items.
The equipment was used by engineering students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the United States, who visited the hub on seven-week placements.
The students designed a plastic recycling assembly line for collecting, sorting and recycling the bottle caps, to be turned into various functional products and moulds.
In collaboration with school groups and neighbourhood houses, the social change organisation discovered a local recycling solution for plastic bottle lids.
Stuart Muir Wilson, Jesuit Social Services’ Ecological Justice Hub Program Co-ordinator, said that throughout a seven-week program aimed at demystifying plastics the organisation identified education is a key driver to reduce plastic waste.
“We decided to involve schools in this project to encourage environmental action and environmental skill-building around recycling,” he says.
“Participating in this program educated everyone involved about the process to recycle and why refusing single-use plastic is a better strategy.”
Stuart says the project was created in response to global plastic pollution problems which find plastic lids hard to recycle, for three main reasons.
Based on a variety of different reports from recyclers, Stuart says the type of plastic the lids are made from, their small size and contact with liquids makes them a tricky to recycle item.
“This project was all about what we can do at a local and community level to make sure there is more awareness around how we can make quality plastic products that people will value and reuse, instead of consumer plastics that people will throw out,” he says.
During the course of the project, several school groups from as far as Wangaratta and Beaconsfield travelled to the Ecological Justice Hub in Brunswick.
“Students and teachers would come to see our programs, including the plastic recycling assembly line,” Stuart says.
“At these excursions we would inform the teachers how to run courses or workshops on recycling. And for the students it was all about awareness-building about the different types of plastics to recycle as well as recycling features and qualities.”
Project process
The first step for Jesuit Social Services’ was collecting the plastic lids, which had already been sorted in colour and grade, from collection hubs, which was mostly done by local neighbourhood houses or schools.
“This was important for our processing, because that took up 60 per cent of the time out of the plastic recycling assembly line,” he says.
Stuart says the lids were then shredded in an industrial shredder to be melted into various moulds.
“Following that step we would turn it into resin through a variety of machinery which is made by Precious Plastics Melbourne,” he says.
“It was then either injected into a mould or into a sheet press which could be used in a versatile range of products.
“The melting process ensures that the plastic doesn’t create toxic fumes.”
Stuart says the melted plastic could be used in a variety of products including plant pots, carabiners, utility clips and more.
“We use the cheap plastic sheets as stock which people purchase,” he says. “It is as versatile as a piece of plywood; it can be used for anything from picture frames to jewellery. Some corporate companies bought sheets from us for employee Christmas gifts and welcome packs for new employees.”
A label on the sheets outlines the processes involved in the project. Stuart says connecting the end user with the story is important when encouraging the use of recycled products.
Social impact
Over the course of the project, 330 kilograms of plastic lids were recycled. Stuart says while that’s impressive, he believes the main focus should be on the educational outcomes.
“We travelled to collection points to make sure everyone knew how to sort and clean the lids properly to ensure it could be recycled into a quality product,” he says.
“We educated them, through workshops, on the values of recycling so we could focus on the shredding and moulding stages of the process.”
To measure the social impact, organisational and cultural change achieved through the program, students and teachers conducted surveys before and after the process.
“Results showed participants did not know anything about the industry prior to the project,” Stuart says. “The end result found the participants well educated in the recycling industry, particularly in regard to community engagement.”
Education focused on what individuals can do to be part of the change, which Stuart says involves individually cleaning and sorting consumer plastic.
“When we articulated to people the importance of recycling, the engagement was really great,” he says.
“Once they saw how simple it was, they went from simply cleaning and sorting plastics to wanting to start up their own plastic recycling line.
“The practice of swapping knowledge on reducing plastic harm on the environment is something that really sparks up community groups and keeps them engaged in the long term.”
For more information, jss.org.au/