PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 10 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 01+02/16 www.petpla.net A recycling idea beyond shopping bags and fleece pullovers From bottle to tile by Miriam Trotter This is the first time we report about someone who initially hated plastic and would not even drink out of a PET bottle, someone who fought against this in his former opinion environmentally harmful material. However, seeing the PET bottle industry growing he took the very inspiring decision “if you can’t beat it, join it.” This is how the Center for Regen- erative Design and Collaboration (CRDC), the water brand Agua and the “bottle to tile” project were brought to life. The idea behind it The success story started in 2010 during a beach clean-up when the initiator and CEO of CRDC, Donald Thomson, saw children stomping down plastic bottles on a Costa Rican beach. At that very moment his idea of turning PET bottles into roof tiles was born. The concept is as simple as genius, specially designed water bottles are crimped into roof tiles for houses of the poorer population of Costa Rica where the Canadian-born entrepre- neur has lived for the last 25 years. However, this is much more than just a recycling idea for PET bottles which might otherwise end up in the oceans - it is the unique idea of up-cycling a waste product. Thomson calls this idea REAP which is an abbreviation for Recover, Enrich, Appreciate and Prosper. Transferring this abstract concept of the specific “bottle-to -tile” project means recovering the empty water bottles before becom- ing a down-cycle product or even an environmental contaminant. Enriching them to a high qual- ity product by making tiles out of them and appreciating the tiles by using them for housing for poor people guarantees prosperity to all stakeholders. The waste stream of the PET bottle has become the value stream for the roof tile. Thomson draws an infinity loop to outline the interdependence of input and output: “two intersecting cycles, synergistically co-nurturing a balanced and zero waste growth between themselves”. As binding element between input and output the company ensures balanced management and investment. Professional realisation Good ideas need professional realisation and that is what Donald Thomson - initially working in the real estate sector - was occupied with for almost five years. The design of the 700ml bottle was a hard task in order to meet the requirements for the crimping process. Many modifica- tions led to the eye-catching rectan- gular shape combining in the end perfect crimping and also smooth blow moulding and the latter turned out to be a real challenge. The bubble on top creates a magnifying optical effect, an essential part of the unique bottle shape. It was initially not only a fancy detail to the bottle design but an indispensable element to fill the mould properly during the blow moulding process. Otherwise the material would collapse and the bottle’s shoulders were not shaped. In 2012 the bottle was finally pat- ented. Donald Thomson orders the 32gr preforms from the Peruvian supplier San Miguel. Its comparatively heavy weight is necessary to make the bottle respectively the tile durable and strong enough to last about 50 years. Earlier the blow moulding was out-sourced as well but after frustrat- ing experiences in India and a bank- rupt company in Costa Rica Thom- son decided to blow mould in-house. A Chinese double cavity manual mould, equipped with Costa Rican moulds and retrofitted by Nova Mart from Costa Rica, became a loyal companion. Moulding two bottles at once it produces 300.000 pieces per month as of now but bears the potential of doubling the amount. A crimping machine called Henry A crimping machine in the sense of Donald Thomson needs did not exist before. With the help of the Seattle University they developed a manual crimping machine ten-