As we all know, there are far too many plastics in our world and unlike most materials, plastics do not readily break down. It is estimated that plastic takes 500 to 1000 years to decompose. Only about 9 percent of plastic in the United States is recycled.
These horrifying facts were a driving force behind a project envisioned and carried out by students at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. They designed and built a system where members of the university community can bring their used plastic items, shred them, melt them down and create new useful items.
Michael Quinto is a senior at Texas State University studying Manufacturing Engineering with a minor in Environmental Studies. At university he has been developing a small-scale plastic recycling system where he personally designed and built a plastic shredder and helped manufacture an injection molder. Currently, he is working at Apple on their Environmental Supply Chain Innovation Team as an Engineering Intern. After his internship he plans to start a student organization on campus with the core goals of recycling education and continuous development of the plastic recycling system.
Since it began in 2015, Mothering Earth has been bringing listeners informative programs on a broad range of environmental and sustainable living topics — from enjoying farmers markets to building rainwater collection systems, to growing organic vegetables in your own garden. You can enjoy the entire library of programs on Apple Podcasts, or any of the other podcasting platforms.
