The presence of plastics in society is becoming hard to ignore. According to the report The New Plastics Economy – Rethinking the future of plastics, there has been an increase in plastics production worldwide over the last century. It is estimated that by 2034 the production of this material will have grown to 622 million tonnes per year, being this amount equivalent to 311 million tonnes per year in 2014 (World Economic Formu, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company, 2016). This rapidly rising production rate is becoming a waste management problem.
According to the scientific article The Chinese import ban and it’s impact on global plastic waste trade, a key event in this context is played by China, which had imported an accumulated 45% of plastic waste since 1992 and which, in January 2018, implemented a new policy prohibiting the import of most plastic waste (Amy L. Brooks, Shunli Wang and Jenna R. Jambeck published in Science Advances on 20 June 2018).
In this scenario emerges Plarble, an experiment that offers new materials arising from LDPE (Low-density polyethylene) waste, proposing to close the loop of this material and introducing new applications in a system based on a circular economy model.
Plarble is complemented by a recipe book that allows you to replicate the material, as well as understand the properties that the resulting material will have.
Víctor García Galofré 