HCMC college students propose innovative plastic waste solutions
(VEN) - Students of four tertiary institutions in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) have come up with several practical project ideas to fight plastic waste pollution, scourge of the modern world.
The presentations were made on March 18 at the ISHCMC Secondary Campus in Thao Dien District by 16 teams from University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City- International School of Business (UEH/ISB), Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU), RMIT and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.
The teams participated in a 6-month program called the The Rethink Plastic Vietnam Design Factory that seeks to promote practical, innovative, creative and inspiring solutions to “design out plastic waste” from the environment and to build a circular economy of plastics.
A total of 75 students were supported in the process by their university representatives as well as business experts from businesses like IKEA, De Heus, BASF, An Phat Holding and Annam Gourmet.
The solutions recommended at the end of six months were judged by a five-member jury consisting of government and local business representatives.
Awards were presented to three teams chosen by the jury and a public vote – Tensai from TDT, 3T from UEH/ISB and Green Dream, also from TDT.
The Tensai team came up with the idea of recycled plastic rollers for automobiles that would create a system of barriers to absorb the “impact force” after a traffic accident.
The system would transmit the evenly distributed force to the “entire structural system including steel frames, rotating rollers, supporting shafts.” The rotating roller mechanism would enable the direct impact force to be converted to a “slip moment,” that, in turn, would “change the direction of the collision, safely returning the automobile to the lane or stopping the vehicle by absorbing the shock energy resulting from the collision.”
The solution would also help prevent a series of collisions involving other vehicles.
The3T team proposed collecting used pens to recycle into desks for poor students at the Vinh Vien A1 Primary School in Hau Giang Province. The Thien Long Group agreed to become the primary sponsor of this project as a part of their annual CSR Campaign to help schools become more environmentally-friendly.
The Green Dreamer team suggested the production of HCPs – a new adsorbent from EPS waste for use in cleaning up oil spills, treating wastewater and similar problems. The new adsorbent would extract pollutants at a high rate and can be reused many times without a significant decrease in adsorption capacity. Once the adsorption capacity decreases significantly, the used adsorbent can be used as a filler for making cement bricks or composites. The HCPs absorbent would be manufactured from styrofoam using a simple process at a low cost. It would be non-toxic and environmentally friendly.
The six-month course was organized by ReThink Plastic Vietnam, a community based initiative that aims to increase awareness of plastic waste pollution and contribute to concrete solutions by engaging with all stakeholders including local governments, academia, businesses, NGOs and citizens.
