The opportunity. Alaska's beaches are covered with hundreds of tons of plastic ocean waste (POW) that has been deposited into the water from a myriad of counties including russia, japan, korea, china,…

PKS Consulting Inc. received a $125,000 Project Grant award from the Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a mobile recycling system for plastic ocean waste in Alaska. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program aims to stimulate technological innovation through federal research funding.

Under this SBIR award, PKS Consulting will design a modular plastic recycling unit to convert polyethelyne terephthalate (PET) plastic retrieved from ocean waste into recycled plastic bricks. Existing modules developed in a prior SBIR phase process other types of plastic into recycled plastic lumber. This award will add a PET processing module to locally produce recycled building materials from ocean plastics. The mobile recycling system aims to reduce landfill waste while creating local jobs and increasing plastic collection and recycling in remote Alaskan communities. Triverus, an Alaskan engineering firm, will assist with the project.

The opportunity. Alaska's beaches are covered with hundreds of tons of plastic ocean waste (POW) that has been deposited into the water from a myriad of counties including russia, japan, korea, china, and the united states. There are some collection efforts that focus on removing debris from beaches, but there is no effort made toward recycling the POW, IT is sent to a landfill. There are millions of pounds of POW that could be converted into useful, and profitable, products. There is also the opportunity to provide rural coastal alaska communities with revenue generation for both collection and production. The proposal. Participation in recycling efforts can be improved by offering compensation for the recycled plastics. POW can be collected by local fishers and boaters and brought to port for purchase. Ocean bound plastic (OBP) can be collected through residential recycling programs that offer compensation for sorted and cleaned plastics. The challenge is the development of a feasible local recycling system that converts plastics to products. The solution is a mobile plastic ocean waste recycler deployed in multiple coastal communities throughout the year. The approach. In a prior phase i EPA sbir, we designed two modules for processing POW/OBP: a polymer preparation module for sorting, cleaning, grinding, and drying plastic; and a recycled plastic lumber production (RPL) module that converts polyethylene (hdpe/ldpe), polypropylene (PP), and polyamide (nylon) into RPL. However, polyethylene terephthalate (pet) is not being used. We propose to utilize this pet as feedstock in the production of solid plastic bricks that can be used for light construction. Also, alternate utilities will be evaluated to extend the mobility of these plastic ocean waste recycler modules to a larger number of remote communities. The objective. The primary objective during phase i is to design a mobile pet plastic ocean waste recycler (power) module that is capable of locally producing a recycled plastic brick (RPB) product from the pet retrieved from the POW and OBP. The benefits. This approach will result in a POW solution that is local and feasible, contributing to reduced landfill usage, increased local jobs, increased plastic ocean waste collection, increased local plastics recycling, and reduced impact of plastics on the environment. The team. The principal investigator for the proposed effort has successfully commercialized several sbir efforts. Assisting PKS will be triverus, alaska's premier machining, engineering, and manufacturing company.