Waste2Weights Using Waste Through Compaction and Bonding to Create Recycled Weights 4/21/2022 Bio-Inspired Design 1320 Final Project Group: Collin Jiral, Nikki Morrow, Sam Jackson, Keaton Jeurgens, Claire Brown, JP Andrade, Erynn Price Professor: Dr. Tirhas Hailu DEFINE THE PROBLEM ● We produce over 2.12 billion tons of waste every year with no useful function for the waste ● Solid waste landfills are a large source of methane emissions ● How can we make the waste useful and reduce the waste? Break down of pollution: Pollution of soil, Air pollution, Pollution of oceans, Pollution of groundwater BACKGROUND/LITERATURE REVIEW ● Different types of waste affect how they are processed ● Solid landfill waste can have varying densities which affect weight creation ● Compactors and balers exist that serve varying purposes ● Waste recycling can be unpredictable Effects Problem Causes PROBLEM TREE WHY IS IT IMPORTANT 01 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CHANGE HOW WE DEAL WITH WASTE Landfills continue to grow at an alarming rate, to create mountains of trash with no useful applications. Because of our consumer society, we continually create large quantities of waste with no real plan to eliminate or make use of it, creating massive landfills. 02 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CHANGE HOW WE DEAL WITH WASTE Since throwing away certain items cannot be prevented, we should attempt to reuse or find new purposes for them. The problem as of now is that the cost-to-reward ratio of excavating useful materials and dealing with the waste is too low; therefore, the corporate demand to increase dump mining is very low, and thus there is not much action in the field. The true question we must consider is how we can do this and reduce our output of waste in ecosystems. FACTORS OF WASTE PRODUCTION ● The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that over 75% of America's waste is reusable, yet we only reuse approximately 30%. ● 13 tons of hazardous waste is produced every second – that’s 400 million tons per year ● Amazon ships over 600 million packages per year, most in paperboard boxes. Over half of these ends up in landfills. ● Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets wasted- approximately 1.3 billion tonnes. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ● One way in which science has been trying to solve this problem is through a process called plasma gasification: a process that turns any waste (even radioactive waste) into valuable chemical products and clean fuels. ● Another option is to reduce our intake and the output of our waste or find creative ways to productively use the waste - we could accomplish this, by using more decomposable materials, create better recycling program, etc. DATA Municipal Solid Waste 2018 Percentages 01 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ● Do research on the demand for the product and find out what price point we could be able to produce and sell it at ● Calculate amount of waste we would be able to remove and repurpose and how it would affect the environment ● Find most efficient way to extract the useful materials while minimizing the cost to do so ● Discover how we can prevent our solution from contributing to the problem and increasing the waste in landfills 02 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ● Reduce the waste build-up that exists in landfills that have no useful function and repurpose them so they in some way are able to benefit society ● Identify how much it would cost to acquire waste from landfills RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS ● By compacting and shaping trash from landfills, we can create a product that allows people to better themselves and in turn, use waste that would otherwise have no use, and creating them into weights. METHODOLOGY 1. Source rubber and waste from landfills 2. Remove moisture from waste 3. Carbonize dried waste 4. Combust the remaining organic material 5. Create a chemical reaction using salts and water to create CaCO3 6. Place the compost and the fly ash into the machine/mold, and heat and compress it creating the weight 7. Coat mold in sub-melted rubber to complete product PROCESS BIOMIMICRY 01 02 03 04 05 06 DEFINE BIOLOGIZE DISCOVER ABSTRACT EMULATE EVALUATE DEFINE Millions of tons of waste is thrown away every day and never used again. One way to deal with the waste is creating a process to cheaply produce weights from this waste. BIOLOGIZE ● How does nature reuse waste in a useful way? ● How does nature create structures? ● How can we apply these processes? DISCOVER 01 EARTHWORMS ● Earthworms decompose nutrients in dead plants and animals, making them available for living plants. ● Earthworms consume organic matter and break it down into smaller pieces which releases its nutrients. DISCOVER 02 BIRDS ● Birds weave together grass and twigs to form a basket. ● Birds use mud or their own saliva to bind and support the nest’s materials. ● Some birds use rocks in their nests to make them heavier. DISCOVER 03 BEAVERS ● Beavers create dams that manipulate the water flow for food. They use their front paws to build and their mouth to carry materials. ● Beavers drop trees in the stream, gather branches, sticks, and mud in their mouths, then add on to the fallen trees. DISCOVER 04 CORAL POLYPS ● Coral polyps use a chemical reaction to create aragonite using hydrogen carbonate and calcium. ● They use this aragonite (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) to construct a framework, then reinforce it with more crystals to strengthen the skeletons. ABSTRACT 01 EARTHWORMS ● Earthworms break down organic matter and release the biochemical nutrients in it. This shows the reusing of individual components of organic matter for other purposes. ● Earthworms releases decomposed organic matter into the soil. This decomposing of organic matter is like making compost. 02 BIRDS ABSTRACT ● Birds use a variety of materials to construct their nests, and weave them to each other. This shows they merge materials to increase overall functionality. ● Birds use mud or their own saliva to bind the materials. This shows the use of adhesives to bind materials together. ABSTRACT 03 CORAL POLYPS ● Coral polyps use a chemical reaction to create aragonite, or calcium carbonate. This shows the use of raw materials in a reaction yields proper materials. ● Coral polyps build the aragonite in a skeleton then add on to form a reinforced structure. EMULATE 01 EARTHWORMS ● Like earthworms break down organic matter for reuse, we will break down the food matter into raw chemicals for use in reactions. ● Like earthworms create decomposed organic matter, we can create compost from the waste food and use it in weights, since compost is very dense. ● Like birds use a variety of materials and merge them, we can use different components in our weights and combine them together to increase the density. ● Like birds use saliva and mud to bind materials together, we will use compost to combine our materials together. EMULATE 02 BIRDS CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, infographics & images by Freepik ● Like coral polyps use compounds in the water in a chemical reaction to create aragonite, we will use raw chemicals extracted from food waste to create calcium carbonate, CaCO3. ● Like coral polyps create a skeleton of aragonite then add on to form a dense structure, we will use a base of calcium carbonate then add on other materials to form a dense weight. EMULATE 03 CORAL POLYPS EMULATE 04 K2CO3 & CaCl2 DRYING PYROLYSIS COMBUSTION REACTION Moisture is removed from raw food waste Dried food is carbonized at high temperatures Remaining organic material is combusted Salts combined with water precipitates out CaCO3 EMULATE 05 COMBINATION OF MATERIALS ● Calcium carbonate product from food waste ● Fly ash waste from coal combustion ● Compost made from food waste Material Density (g/cm3) Composition % CaCO3 2.70 53 Fly Ash 1.78 10 Compost 2.32 32 Water 1.00 5 Free Weight 2.40 100 06 WEIGHT CREATION EMULATE EMULATE 07 RUBBER COATING & FINAL PRODUCT EVALUATE COST IS #1 CONSTRAINT ● Equipment-Dehydrator, Engine for Combustion/Heating Compactor, Weight Scale, Coating Process ● Fly Ash-10% composition can be found relatively cheap ● Food Compost/Tire Waste- sourced from the community at a low cost EVALUATE OVERALL ● Economically expensive but the cost of resources will be paid back eventually through cost of weights ● Logistically the process of turning the waste into weights is long and the startup process would be difficult, but it would benefit the community by repurposing forgotten waste 01 C2C VERIFICATION: WASTE IS FOOD ● Our process follows Cradle to Cradle life cycle. ● Meaning: the output of one production is the input for the production of our product. ● Compostables combined with other waste materials to make our weights. ● From many options, we chose food and rubber waste 02 C2C VERIFICATION: USE OF RENEWABLE RESOURCES ● Conventional methods of producing weights from scratch are taxing on the environment ● Our concrete production is modeled after coral polyps, which is more environmentally friendly ● Our factory power source will be geothermal vents 03 C2C VERIFICATION: CELEBRATING DIVERSITY There are many possible uses for this process & materials: ● Counterbalance weights for ships and vehicles ● Outdoor furniture ● Additional equipment such as squat racks and benches 01 REFERENCES https://thecircularconsumer.com/what-is-zero-waste/#:~:text=The%20World%20 Counts%20estimates%20that%20every%20year%20we,end%20up%20in%20our%20water%20systems%20and%20landfills https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-recycling https://www.addisoncountyrecycles.org/recycling/reduce-reuse/zero-waste https://netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/westinghouse https://globaltrashsolutions.com/waste-types/metals/ https://www.mswmanagement.com/landfills/article/13026371/landfill-waste-compaction-strategiestools-and-techniques https://www.iqsdirectory.com/articles/baler/compactors.html https://www.hwhenvironmental.com/facts-and-statistics-about-waste/?msclkid=9d5a87e3b8fb11ec95b5919879313593 https://www.treehugger.com/animals-that-recycle-in-their-everyday-lives-4869312 https://vietnamcastiron.com/dumbbell-materials/ https://www.epa.gov/landfills/municipal-solid-wastelandfills#:~:text=A%20municipal%20solid%20waste%20landfill%20(MSWLF)%20is%20a%20discrete%20area,and%20industrial%20nonhazardous%20solid%20wa ste. 02 REFERENCES https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials https://9to5civil.com/density-of-cement-sand-and-aggregate/ https://www.cement.org/cement-concrete/how-concrete-is-made#:~:text=In%20its%20simplest%20form%2C%20concrete,and%20coarse%20(larger)%20aggregates. https://www.howden.com/en-us/articles/cement/how-is-cement-made https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/em/c5em00419e https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509518303735 https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1189&title=Food%20Waste%20Composting:%20Institutional%20and%20Industrial%20Application https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.538.2460&rep=rep1&type=pdf#:~:text=As%20expected%2C%20the%20particle%20density,of%200.0475%20(Table%201). https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/ocean-acidification#:~:text=To%20make%20calcium%20carbonate%2C%20shell,and%20water%20in%20the%20process. https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/how-do-corals-build-their-skeletons/ https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Calcium-carbonate#section=Solubility 03 REFERENCES https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/wood-ash-in-the-garden/#:~:text=The%20largest%20component%20of%20wood,and%20completely%20in%20the%20soil. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/#:~:text=Average%20daily%20intakes%20of%20calcium,to%201%2C015%20mg%20%5B18%5D. https://www.cargill.com/salt-in-perspective/potassium-chloride-foodfaqs#:~:text=What%20is%20potassium%20chloride%20used,agent%2C%20and%20stabilizer%20or%20thickener. https://weilerwoodsforwildlife.com/why-do-beavers-build-dams/#:~:text=So%20first%2C%20they%20drop%20trees,a%20pond%20behind%20the%20dam. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/build-a-bird-nest/#:~:text=Some%20birds%20weave%20together%20grass,need%20to%20serve%20different%20purposes. https://www.earthwormsoc.org.uk/earthworm-function#:~:text=Decomposition%20releases%20nutrients%20locked%20up,it%20and%20release%20the%20nutrients. https://chemistrytalk.org/potassium-metal-banana-extraction/ https://www.gmtrubber.com/a-brief-guide-on-the-rubber-recycling-process/
