Do you have a cool idea for reusing used plastic bottles? Have you thought of innovative ways to collect and recycle plastic trash?
If so, check out Plasticity 2012, a one-day forum that will be held next month alongside Rio Earth Summit 2012. The conference will be a chance for business and community leaders to share and brainstorm solutions to the problem of plastic waste in the environment, including cutting edge recycling, re-use, design, packaging, materials, case studies (from cities, groups and companies), policies, and emerging new technologies. For those who can’t make their way to Rio, Plasticity’s organizers are holding a competition, Capture Gold, to find smart solutions that will help improve the capture and reuse of PET plastic bottles.
Doug Woodring, one of the event organizers, explains: “PET is an easy material to recycle, BUT, the bottles are not being recycled at the rate they could be. In the US, we use almost 72 billion PET plastic bottles per year, and only 21% gets recycled according to the Container Recycling Institute – there is a big opportunity here! Rebate laws only exist in some states, and certainly not all countries, so something genius needs to happen to change people’s mindset about this material.” The challenge, he said, is to figure out “the best, coolest, new way to use the material. If something neat is made, and people demand it, then the “sucking” sound will start which will help to draw the waste bottles back into the recycling stream.”
For more on the contest, click here: Capture Gold