Plastic building blocks in Watamu

Abstract

Executive Summery
Plastic waste pollution is a well known global problem, also in Watamu, a little village on the coast of Kenya. The living conditions in Watamu are harsh, with a lot of unemployment and poverty.
People depending on tourism which is negatively related to the plastic pollution on the beach and in the village. The housing situation for locals suffers from poverty as well, many locals lack proper shelter. The project described in this report helps to solve these issues in many ways: 1. Remanufacturing of plastic waste creates economic opportunities and reduces the waste in the environment 2. Making building blocks out of the plastic waste provides low cost building material 3. Low cost building material enables better housing opportunities for the locals The research was made possible by Steve Trott, owner of EcoWorld, a local plastic waste processing company. The company’s ambition is to grow and ignite the plastic waste circular economy in coast province Kenya. The next step in this ambition is remanufacturing plastic waste material into useful products. The deliverables of this project are: 1. A minimal viable production process of (re-)manufacturing building material from plastic waste 2. Identification of the impact on social-wellbeing, environment and economic opportunities (using the triple bottom line framework). 3. Implementation roadmap for EcoWorld Research process and outcome The following research activities are performed, described with the outcome: 1. An analysis to get a good and qualitative understanding of the local context and the (potential) impact of the design. 2. Data analysis to create a list of insights that are used as inspiration and requirements for the design process. 3. An inclusive decision making process concluded to focus on designing building bricks for school in Watamu. 4. Material selection based on availability of waste and producibility at EcoWorld, resulting in recycled PP waste as feedstock. 5. Literature study on plastic waste bricks to learn from existing research, resulting in melting and moulding the plastic waste into an interlocking brick shape. 6. Design cycles on production process and material composition of the bricks. The outcome was a series of 23 different bricks containing either HDPE, PET or PP in combination with sand or other additives. 7. Destructive testing on the 23 bricks to find the influence of the different plastic sorts, with a chosen best option as outcome; PP plastic. 8. Final test on compressive strength at the TUDelft to find the best recycled PP mixture composition considering strength and cost and to prove the feasibility of the selected brick (the minimal viable product). Description of the final design The minimal viable production process was co-designed locally, with local skill and materials. This process was used as an experimental set-up to test the shape, weight and size of the brick, the local opinions, the mixture composition and insights for the next phase of the brick production line development. The tests with different material compositions lead to the final choice of 50% recycled PP and 50% fine sand...