Ireland has come up with a way to turn plastic bottles into cars

It is from these plastic bottles that the famous Great Pacific Garbage Plot mainly consists, the size of which exceeds the territory of France. All this garbage will have to be disposed of somehow; it will take many years, if not decades.

In the meantime, scientists face the challenge of how to make this garbage patch and similar clusters of floating plastic trash in the Indian and Atlantic oceans no longer increase. But what about 20 million tons of plastic and millions of plastic bottles?

One of the many solutions to the problems of recycling plastic bottles can be a technology developed at the University of Limerick in Ireland, RTE radio station reported on its website. Scientists working in the center for studying composite materials at the university have come up with a way to turn plastic bottles into an expensive composite material that can be used to make parts and assemblies for cars and tractors.

The essence of the technology is that plastic waste is crushed, fused into high-strength fiber, which in its mechanical properties is superior to traditional fiberglass. The result is a material that can be used to make not only the external body parts, but also for the power bearing elements of the frame.

Dr. Walter Stanley, who heads the project, believes that this technology can turn plastic bottles from waste into valuable raw materials. The process of recycling plastic waste into "reinforced" composite materials takes place at lower temperatures and, therefore, requires less energy. The resulting composites can be used in many areas, including parts for cars, tractors and other equipment, while at the end of their service life these parts can be recycled again.

Source: https://www.fontanka.ru