The plastic waste collected and then recycled can become a useful tool for dealing with emergency situations. This was the result of the experimental project presented at the Ecomondo fair in Rimini by Waste Free Oceans and Corepla, who, together with Protomax, have created a humanitarian shelter prototype with plastic collected along the river Po in Italy.
Corepla – the Italian non-profit-making consortium for the collection, recycling and recovery of the waste from plastic packaging materials – partnered with the Waste Free Oceans foundation and collaborated on this project in Italy by providing the material which was used for the first shelter.
The plastic waste collected with experimental polyethylene barriers in the river Po, after being recycled by Corepla, was sent to the Storm Board plant of the English group Protomax Plastics, a company specialising in the production of recycled plastic panels that are mainly used in the constructions sector, in order to produce the boards which served for building the shelter.
The organisations cooperate in finding a practical answer to the issue of marine litter and in helping educate society on the recycling solutions available, therefore helping some regions in the world with the humanitarian shelter project.
"Driving the limits of plastics recycling to the extreme, in order to contribute to social housing and emergency shelters is a win-win situation for Europe. More applications from mixed plastics waste in construction, horticulture and furniture markets will need to be developed in Europe if we are serious about the circular economy. At the same time, this social, humanitarian project has an educational purpose which should not be underestimated.", says Alexandre Dangis, WFO Founder.
At the end of the Ecomondo fair, the panels, which are quickly assembled and disassembled, have been sent to Athens, Greece, with the aim of serving as a demo project helping the refugees in the area. The original concept is to manage part of the refugee's plastic waste in order to produce recycled panels which can be used to build emergency shelters or any other useful structures suitable to their needs.
For more information on Corepla, visit: http://www.corepla.it/
For more information on Protomax, visit: http://protomax.net/
For more information on WFO, please email: contact@wastefreeoceans.org or contact : Cyrielle Feumetio, WFO Chief Business Development Officer at cyrielle.feumetio@wastefreeoceans.org