Plastic Girls

Today we got an email saying our team is in the best ten, so we are going to go to Bremen and if the jury decides so, we can present our project.

We would really like thank all of you, who read the plasticgirls and for those too who have voted (:

Today is the last day you can vote for our project by supporting the team YouHu! on (click on the picture)

Can you image that this jewelries were made of plastic bottles?

Even you can not...those are.

One of my favourite task in this green thing is the art of recycled plastic bottles.

Our main goal to try to find profitable solution to inspire comanies and/or costumers to collect plastic bottles.

A new idea is to make some artworks and design your own flat or sell them.

This light looks like a new design IKEA lamp, look the similarity:

In our project we try to find new idea how we can persuade people to collect the bottles separatly. One of the answer is to inspire companies either on a positive or on a negativ way, like rewarding or punishing.

We managed to find a new solution from Sweden which does not inspire the companies but it inspires the costumers playfully.

Enjoy the video:

Now, it's time to choose the best projects on th impACT competition!

You can give your vote here

Vote for YouHu! if you think we had achieved a positive impact in the last few weeks!

In the last few weeks the Hungarian legislation concerning product fee had to face several criticism from environmental organizations. They claim that the present system and the bill which has been introduced by the government will have serious negative effect on the market. 

The product fee was introduced in 1995 in order to encourage the more efficient use of natural resources. Currently, the product fee is payable on other crude oil products, tires, refrigerators, refrigerants, packaging, batteries, paper-based advertising materials, and electrical and electronic equipment.

Under the current rules, the product fee is payable by the person who first sells on the Hungarian market, or uses for his own purposes in Hungary, a locally manufactured product, or a product originating in the European Community. It is also payable by the customs debtor in the case of imported products and also by the person who first sells in the Hungarian market and the person who then first resells commercial packaging (typically containers for beverages, such as plastic bottles).

In addition to paying the product fee, manufacturers, distributors and companies who purchase certain products from abroad also have waste management obligations (e.g. take-back, collection, recycling and disposal). Companies that generate, possess or manage waste are required to keep records of such waste for each of their permanent establishments and report it to the authorities.

However, product fee supposed to be an important tool in environmental legislation and also in waste management, several Hungarian environmental organizations questions its efficiency. They claim that companies have to deal with too many administrative tasks because of the intransparent system. They fear that the number of small companies going bust will rise because they have to face more difficulties. Moreover, the European Union has already obligated Hungary in 2007 to change its legislation. Until today, the country have failed the fulfill the obligation, but environmentalists claim that the new bill which has been introduced in the last day will not also fulfill it.

On Wednesday, 21 October a workshop is organized by our team on the following topic:

Business Prospects in Plastic Waste Recycling

The workshop is modereated by Péter Ollár, the secretary general of Hungarian Plastic Industry Association. If you are interested in the hidden business opportunities of plastic waste recycling or you are just want to be aware of the new environmental innovations, don't miss this event!

Date: 21 October 2009, 11:20-12:20

Location: Corvinus University of Budapest, Room E332 (old buliding, 3rd floor), Budapest 8 Fővám Square

We have given a report to the newspaper of the Corvinus University of Budapest. It was publicated in the volume 51 in October 2009.

This is a paper based newspaper so this is just illustration:

Every day the world requires more energy. The Barrel Counter tallies how many barrels of oil equivalent are being consumed globally during a visit to your site.

we found some very funny videos about how animals save the world

have fun with them, as we did (:

We were there! The program was organized by FKF Zrt and the Fantom Team and the aim was to clean one frequented - and dirty - square by voluntary work of the citizens and to show that it all could be that way, it all depends on us.

YouHu! was there to collect plastic waste separate.

 just before we started collecting in our new fantom shirt

 We stared the cleaning work at Moszkva square, which is one of the most crowded, and as so one of the dirtiest places of Budapest. On saturday, with 3 other big group, led by famous Hungarian TV stars. So in all, this event was a quite big attraction, and had a big publicity. It has been broadcasted by several big hungarian TV and radio channels, and it was sponsored by TV2, SPAR, National Geographic, and serveral other Hungarian companies.  

We have arrived at the Moszkva square at around 11, and then, we got our sacks, and started to collect plastic waste seperately.

  Zsofi shows you how much plastic we have found :)

 We really had a great fun at all :) And as we got deeper and deeper in the plastic waste, we felt, it's time to get some help. Because this Big City Cleaning was also a Family Exhibition, and an anchorman was there, who helped the cleaners, where to go and how to do, we decided to ask him for some help. He made an interview with us, where we asked the waste collectors, to collect the plastic bags and bottles in different bags, and we also talked about our project, and about the impACT program, to make some publicity to our commitment.

We collected about 2,5 big bag full with plastic waste, unfortunately in Budapest it's quite easy...

 deep cleaning :)

In all, we really believe, that this project was successful, because we not only helped out the street cleaners, but we were also able to say a few words about plastic waste recycling.

But the really fun part just started after that :) When we finished the collecting, we went to the Millenaris Park, which is just a few steps from Moszkva square, because there was a big green festival and quite a lot of family programs. We met here with several hungarian green companies, like, the www.fkf.hu; www.budapestfantom.hu; www.okopannon.hu, and the Budapest Cleaner Company. Here we also had some fun around the dust cars :) Do you see the logo on it? :)

Waste World- EcoDesign Festival (Szemét Világ- Öko Design Festival) is organized between 3 September 2009 and 3 March 2010 in VAM Design Center in Budapest, Hungary. The ultimate purpose of the festival is to draw attention to the growing problem of waste. During these month series of programs are organized to seek and offer solution for the reuse and recycling of waste.

The participants of the festivals are Hungarian and foreign artists from a wide range of fields: fine art, handicraft, but also modern dance and music. The patron of the festival is Imre Szabó, the Hungarian Minister of Environment and Water.

Programs are organized in two different lines: on one hand, it deals with the reuse and recycling of waste and on the other hand, with the prevention of waste formation. Organizers’ intention is to spread the idea of environmentally conscious lifestyle, recycling, the use of organic materials, and to promote the aspects of ecocentric thinking by the so-called waste design.

Dear Readers,

I would like to invite you for a lecture today. The lecturer will be Peter Olajos who is specialized for European enviromental engineer and he was member of the IMCO, then the BUDG and the 'ad hoc' committee for climate changing. For more information about him in Hungarian:

His lecture will be about the green economy and green society and the language is Hungarian.

When:on the 6th October from 8 pm. 

Where: in Rajk László College for Advanced Studies (6. Horánszky street 1085. Budapest)

We are waiting for you!

I have found a Hungarian page called www.hulladekboltermek.hu, it is about how to redesign waste and there is a game where you, as a girl :), can press plactic bottels and you can even be the top of the game (:

Have fun with it! (:

The way of playing: press the "down" button first to start pressing of the bottle and press again if you think it is ready, then press the space bottom to drop it into the trash can. To start playing, just click on the picture below and then on the "jatszom" button!

All over the world plastic bottles are produced, consumed, and trashed each and every day. Recycling is one solution for the problem, but not the only one! You can also reuse plastic bottles. You don’t even need extra money or resources for that. All you have to use is your creativity to turn plastic bottles into great objects. Here are some ideas as inspiration for your own items:

A bird feeder in your window or backyard. Easy to bulid, cheap and attracts all kind of colorful wildlife.

 And a piece of true modern art

And if it is still not enough, here are some really crazy ideas

From plascti-dog to plastic-house

Plastic waste is a menace and has become a serious problem, especially in urban areas, in terms of its misuse, its dumping in the dustbins. But how to tackle the problem? Not only environmentalists, but also scientists realized that recycling is the best alternative to get rid of waste and convert them into something useful for our world today.

However, plastic has posed some problems, being one of the materials that is indeed hard to recycle, the laboratory studies conducted in India in utilization of waste plastic bags in bituminous concrete mixes seems to solve these difficulties.

And how it works? Here you find a detailed introduction about the project:

Reuse of plastics waste in Road Construction

Polymer blended Bitumen shows higher Softening point, lower penetration point, and better ductility. Polymer coated aggregate blended with Bitumen shows higher Marshall value and better stripping value showing that the mix is more suited for road laying.

Process of Road laying using polymer- aggregate – Bitumen mix

The plastic waste (bags, cups, Thermocole) made out of PE, PP, & PS are separated, cleaned if needed and shredded to small pieces (passing through 4.35mm sieve) The aggregate (granite) is heated to 170oC in the Mini hot Mix Plant and the shredded plastic waste is added, it gets softened and coated over the aggregate. Immediately the hot Bitumen (160oC) is added and mixed well. As the polymer and the bitumen are is the molten state (liquid state) they get mixed and the blend is formed at surface of the aggregate. The mixture is transferred to the road and the road is laid. This technique is extended to Central Mixing Plant too.

Salient features of the polymer-waste-bitumen mix Road:

►Road strength is twice stronger than normal roads;
► Resistance towards water stagnation i.e. no potholes are formed;

► Less bleeding during summer;

► Burning of plastics waste could be avoided

► It doesn’t involve any extra machinery;

► It doesn’t increase cost of road construction; and

► It helps to reduce the consumption of bituminous mix vis-à-vis reduce cost

It is observed that addition of plastics waste upto 10-15% by weight of bitumen resulted into higher values of softening point and lower values of penetration, which are appreciable improvements in the properties of the binder. This has resulted and withstood higher traffic load and high temperature variation. Several experimental stretches have been laid in more than 15 locations in Tamilnadu using both Mini hot-mix and Central mixing plants.

Economics of Road Construction:

There are different types of bitumen roads. They are, Dense Bituminous Macadam, Bituminous Macadam. These roads differ in 3-ways i.e. 1. Composition of the aggregate; 2. Type of bitumen used; and 3. Thickness of layer. Bitumen is an useful binder for road construction. Different grades of bitumen like 30/40, 60/70, and 80/100 are available on the basis of their penetration values and these grades can be used as IRC Specifications. Waste plastics (10% in place of bitumen) can be used for these different types of bitumen roads. The technology of road laying is very much the same as prescribed by the Indian Roads Congress (Section 500, IV revision) Specifications. A detailed description of the material required for laying of Semi Dense Bituminous Concrete (SDBC) 25 mm road (on existing road) is described below: -

Materials:

For 1000Mx3.75M (25mm) Road          11.250 tons (60/70 grade) bitumen needed

Shredded Plastics Required          10% by weight (passing 4.74mm sieve& retaining 2.36 mm).

Bitumen replaced (saved) by 10/ % Plastics: 1.125 tons

Actual Bitumen Required: 10.125 tons

Aggregate (11.2mm)70.875 Cu.M

Aggregate (6.7mm) 43.125 Cu.M

Aggregate Dust: 23.625 Cu.M

Cost:

The total cost including material as mentioned above, labour charge etc. (At Madurai) is approx. 5.00 lakh, however, the cost may be different from place to place and have to be calculated accordingly. The cost break-up is given below :

Collection of littered plastics Rs. 0.50 lakh

Cost of shredder and other equipment : Rs. 0.50 lakh

Laying of road with material, labour etc.:Rs. 4.00 lakh

Total Rs. 5.00 lakh

Source: http://www.cpcb.nic.in/oldwebsite/Plastic%20Waste/Re-use_of_plastic_waste_in_road_construction.html

A comprehensive policy to address the plastic waste problem in the European Union, as well as in Hungary has been long overdue. Now it is hightime for all stakeholders of the private and public sector to harness their resources and capability and get involved in the programmes designed to tackle the problem of plastic waste. However, there are numerous attempts by environmentalists to control the production and use of plastics, they often bump into barriers that prevent communities, businesses, and people from employing environmetally sensitive methods for treating plastic waste.

Our main goal is to create awereness about the necessity of a comprehensive environmental policy in the field of waste production and recyclement and to broaden the acceptance and practice of alternative methodes in this field. The initiative of our project is to mediate between the private sector- companies responsible for the plastic waste- and the scientific sector who offers alternative, enviromental solution for reducing this waste. To meet these goals we create this platform which helps not only to meet scientists, businessmen, and governmental regulators but also negotiate between them in order to find best matches between problems and methods of dealing with the problem of plastic waste.

• Plastic bags are produced from polymers derived from petroleum. The amount of petroleum used to make a plastic bag would drive a car about 11 metres. (source - CUA)

• Five 2-liter recycled PET bottles produce enough fiberfill to make a ski jacket. –Environmental Protection Agency, 2002

On this site there are some more facts about plastic:

http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=25410

You Hu! is a team of young university students operating in Hungary. We are dedicated to draw attention to the problem of the growing amount of plastic waste worldwide.

The main goal of our project is to mediate between the private sector companies - responsible for the plastic waste - and the scientific sector who offers alternative, enviromental solution for reducing the plastic waste. In order to meet these goals we will try to create awereness about these solution to meet and negotiate and to try to find best matches between problems and methods of dealing with them.