Nguyen Van Xuan with a stone bench made from recycled plastic waste. —VNA/VNS
NHA TRANG (Vietnam News/Asia News Network): Nguyen Van Xuan, is an environmentalist in central Nha Trang City, is creating stone benches and paving stones made from recycled plastic waste.
Xuan, who is director of Resa energy company, mixed plastic and nylon scraps with cement and other additives to make a combination of construction materials.
The stone benches which weigh about 300kg each are environmentally friendly and are estimated to last for more than 50 years.
They have been installed at Nha Trang beach park, as a way of encouraging locals and visitors to protect the environment.
Xuân said concrete is a widely used product while plastic waste is present everywhere. If we can solve the problem of plastic waste, we can find effective ways to protect the environment.
After studying several methods like pyrolysis and plasticisation, Xuân found the best way was plastic waste concrete method, or so-called "binding plastic into concrete".
This solution helps him calculate input and output prices reasonably and profitably.
The biggest advantage is that making concrete from plastic waste does not pollute the environment. Plastic waste will be cold processed, he said.
The plastic shredder can handle all types of garbage, and does not require sorting plastic waste like other hot recycling methods, he said.
He said: “With low investment costs, the products can compete with traditional products of the same type. Depending on the use function, plastic-concrete recycling products can meet the development needs of social life.
“Plastic waste concrete can be used for interior and exterior furniture, construction materials, low-load traffic roads and in-field canals.”
He believes the formula is very simple: Just combine plastic particles with concrete made from cement, sand, stone, aggregate and water. However, it is difficult for plastic to stick firmly to cement.
Xuan found a solution to add additives to bond concrete and plastic.
"The additives have been studied and mixed by my company's engineers,” added the 63-year-old.
Xuan collected plastic for recycling from his own family, neighbours and scrap collectors.
