Plastic Odyssey
A boat capable of recycling marine plastic waste into objects or fuel to ensure its own autonomy: this is the challenge taken up by a team of young engineers and designers. Its name: Plastic Odyssey. The goal is to go around the world’s most polluted coasts of Africa, South America then in Asia between 2020 and 2023.
What is Plastic Odyssey ?
Plastic Odyssey is an association created four years ago by two merchant navy officers and two engineers. Their observation? A lot of plastic on our shores ends up in the ocean. To stop the problem at the source, Plastic Odyssey is developing new solutions to transform waste into useful objects, before they end up in the water. The solutions existing up to this point are technological and extremely expensive, therefore reserved for industrialized countries. The company is therefore inspired by machines that already exist in different countries, and adapt them into low tech machines, simple to build, easy to repair, which consume very little energy. Then, they will build them without a patent, so that anyone can duplicate them to adapt them to their environment.
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How has this idea started ?
In 2016, Simon Bernard was still a young Merchant Marine Officer when he discovered with dismay the extent of plastic pollution, in Dakar. He then decided to tackle the problem head-on by developing simple recycling solutions, accessible to all, patent-free and economically viable. He joined forces with a promotion friend, Alexandre Dechelotte soon joined by a handful of engineers and designers.
These young people thus conceive the Plastic Odyssey project, a 25-meter boat transformed into a floating recycling workshop. At the end of 2020, around fifteen people will embark on the boat. They will leave from Marseille in France then the boat is scheduled to sail this year for a three-year world tour along the most polluted coasts of Africa, South America and Asia, one year per continent.
At each stopover, a large collection of plastics accumulated by the sea will be organized. The recyclable plastic will be transformed on board into new objects. The rest will be stored and converted into fuel to move the boat forward. Supported among others by the CNRS (The National Center for Scientific Research), the Institute of Optics, the National School of Arts and Crafts and Sarp Industries (subsidiary of Véolia), the team is in the process of developing sorting and recycling machines for plastic, including the system that will convert non-recyclable plastic waste into fuel.
From plastic to fuel Several experiments have already been carried out in this direction around the world. The principle is based on the pyrolysis of the plastic. One kilo of plastic bags gives about a liter of fuel relatively similar to that found at the pump. Admittedly, this energy is not clean (CO2 emissions in particular), but it has the advantage of eliminating deadly waste for many species — 1472 marine species are currently affected by this scourge.
Solutions accessible to all
At each of the thirty stopovers, the French company will set up a traveling village, in which accessible to all alternatives to plastic will be presented. Then, they will also organize workshops and training, to co-build with the locals.
The plans of the systems developed to recycle and process the plastic will then be freely shared and ready-to-use kits will be installed in all cities. The long-term ambition is to build a global network of plastic recycling micro-factories that would develop the local economy while cleaning up. The recyclable plastic will be transformed on board into new objects.
Recycling is also Zeloop’s goal, a start-up that is currently developing an application which should be operational by the end of the year in France after a test phase carried out in Dubai during the spring.
This gaming application will contribute to recycle plastic bottles by bringing them to a collection point and will reward users of the applications. ZELOOP will also own a forum where your tips to contribute to the circular economy could be shared. The more you collect and contribute to the community, the more you receive rewards.
