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LOW-COST CONSUMER LEVEL PLASTIC BOTTLES RECYCLING FOR ROPE

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LOW-COST CONSUMER LEVEL PLASTIC BOTTLES RECYCLING FOR
ROPE

M. A. Sattar1*, M. J. Hossen1, M. A. Khatun1, A. Amin2, Z. H. Mim1

1
Department of Physics,
2
Department of Mathematics,
Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science & Technology University,
Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh

Corresponding Author
*
Md. Abdus Sattar
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science & Technology University,
Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh
Mobile No: +8801710415385, Email: [email protected]
 LOW-COST PLASTIC BOTTLES RECYCLING
ABSTRACT

The use of plastic bottles is growing day by day, resulting in a massive volume of plastic waste.
Plastics do not breakdown in the soil or in water. Recycling plastic trash into any usable product
is the best strategy to reduce plastic waste. Rope is a very popular product that always has very
high demand. There had been some earlier methods for manufacturing rope directly from PET
(Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. We are concerned about the final product's quality and
safety because the bottle strips are exceedingly sharp. The study's goal is to investigate the
manufacture, functioning, and future development of low-cost consumer level plastic bottles to
rope recycling technique. Multiple criteria such as cost, production, quality, and quantity of the
finished product are also considered. The construction and acceptability of plastic recycling
machine to recycle plastic bottles successfully is one of the expected outcomes of this research
project.
Key words: PET Bottles, Pollution, Recycling, Rope

INTRODUCTION

Plastics are low-budget, lightweight, strong, durable, corrosion-resistant materials, with high
thermal and electrical insulation properties (Andrade et al. 2016). Plastics include polyethylene
terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and low-
density polyethylene (LDPE) (Plastic - Wikipedia). PET plastic bottles can be found all over our
daily lives. PET is used to make the majority of water, oil, and other liquid bottles. PET bottles
and jars were recycled at a rate of 29.1% in 2018(US EPA 2018) This indicates that 70.9 percent
of pet bottles end up in the environment, polluting the environment. Meantime, the rest of the
plastic fraction find their final way as litters in the oceans or land filled (Rochman et al. 2019).
The vast number of plastic items on the market and the low recycling rate of plastics have
wreaked havoc on the land and marine environments. The plastic waste mass may obstruct the
ground water movement (Silva et al. 2014). Starting in early 2018, the government of China,
under Operation National Sword, banned the import of several types of waste, including
plastics. The ban has greatly affected recycling industries worldwide, as China had been the
world's largest importer of waste plastics and processed hard-to-recycle plastics for other
countries, especially in the West (Bbrooks et al. 2018). Recycling rate has gone lower after the
ban. PET bottle wastes mingle with drainage system water, clog drainage systems, mix with
river water, and eventually end up in the ocean as a final destination. Some PET bottles float
in the sea, while others are submerged. The use of plastic bottle has a significant negative
influence on marine habitats. Many of these substances are known to be persistent, bio
accumulative, and toxic (PBT), with at least 78% of the priority pollutants identified by the US
EPA known to be associated with plastic marine debris (Lin 2016). Plastic is primarily recycled
in industry level. Plastic recycling equipment are both expensive and large. Plastic waste can
also be used to produce new plastic-based products after submitting to reprocessing line (Saikia
and Brito 2012). Plastic pet bottles are one type of plastic bottle that is highly recyclable because
when they melt, they do not emit any poisonous gas or fumes. It is very simple to mold into a
different shape. In the sun or in harsh weather, PET material does not become as fragile as other
plastics. It can even live for an extended period of time underwater than other plastic. Therefore,
the objective of this study is to design a small size, portable, easy to use, less energy consuming
plastic bottle to rope recycling machine to overcome environment pollution due to plastic
bottles and produce high quality ropes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plastic bottles, cutting blades, nut-bolt, steel rod, wooden frame, dc stepper motor, power
supply, Arduino Uno R3 microcontroller board, connecting wire, temperature controller,
winding wheel were used in the rope manufacturing process. The experiment was conducted
in Physics Mechanical Lab of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University
(HSTU), Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh. Details process of whole operation was:

Cutting section
In this section, PET bottles were sliced into strips of various widths. PET bottles were sliced
into long strips using a very sharp blade. A perpendicular rod was used to keep the PET bottle
straight. By adjusting the spacer size between the blade and the wooden base, the width of the

strips may be altered. A nut bolt was used to secure a perpendicular rod to a wooden base.
Fig-1: PET bottle cutting mechanism

Melting zone
A heater cartridge with a dc 12volt 40 watts was used to melt PET bottle strips here. This
cartridge can withstand temperatures of up to 280° C. The temperature of the heater
cartridgewas controlled at a specific temperature level using a low-cost temperature sensor to
ensure a smooth melting process. Plastic strips were pushed to pass through a nozzle with a
diameter of 2mm after melting. After passing through the nozzle, plastic strips were turned to
rope.

Fig-2: Melting zone

Cooling section
After exiting the nozzle, the ropes were remained extremely hot. Excessive heat may cause it
to distort and lose its strength. It was necessary to cool down the rope as soon as possible. A
12- volt cooling fan was installed in front of the nozzle to cool the rope after it exited the nozzle.

Fig-3: Cooling fan

Winding section
To acquire a precise shape and strength, the strips had to be pushed or tugged in some way. In
the winding section, rope was wound into a roll. A winding wheel was connected to a dc stepper
motor in the winding segment. The dc motor spun the winding wheel at a very slow speed. To
keep the winding process consistent, an Arduino Uno R3 microprocessor and TB6600 stepper
motor driver were employed. Pulse Width Modulation or PWM signal was sent to motor driver
TB6600 using Arduino Uno R3 microcontroller. The function of TB6600 was to transmit the
power supply in the form of pulses to the stepper motor in order to rotate the winding wheel.

Fig-4: Winding section

Circuit Diagram of Winding Section

Arduino code for winding section

Power supply section
That entire process was powered by a 12v 10amps 120watt switch mode power supply. The
short circuit fault current was probably the most destructive event in the power distribution
systems (Abramovitz et al. 2013). To prevent any accidents, SMPS (switch mode power
supply) was incorporated short circuit and overload protections.

Fig-5: 12volt 10Amps power supply

Structure

The entire system was built on a man-made timber structure. Screws were used to secure
various components of the system to the base. Rubber feet were used to prevent any kind of
vibration.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1 liter and 2 liters beverage bottles were the most suitable plastic bottles for better output. Rope
of various diameters could be made using various nozzle diameters. Shorter rope was created
by larger nozzles, and vice versa. Using a 2mm nozzle, a 1-liter beverage bottle generated 12
meters of continuous rope, while a 2 liters bottle produced 25 meters of rope. The total cost of
the machine was around 2200 Taka. This contraption used relatively little energy. Productivity
of the setup was 1 meter per minute or 60 meters per hour. Continuous operation for 20 hours
used 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity, which costed only 7-8 Taka. Further analysis showed that
900 meters rope could be produced within 20 hours easily. The complete machine could only
be operated by one person. The bottles had to be manually cut before being fed into the
machine, which was one of the system's biggest drawbacks. The method of feeding bottle strips
through the machine during initialization was time-consuming. An operator must keep a close
check on the system at all times. That method could not make continuous ropes, but it could
produce discrete size ropes based on the size of the bottle. Final product was so strong that it
can resist long periods of time under water, where a typical rope would fail. It could be a good
source of revenue.
An experiment was carried out to compare the strength of recycled bottle rope to that of other
ropes on the market. The experiment was set up such that three independent samples of each
item were taken, each measuring exactly one meter. Each sample was suspended from a fixed
point and weighed at another point. The weight value was increased until the sample's breaking
point was reached. Data was collected after the rope sample was broken. The procedure was
repeated in order to acquire consistent results. The finished product was far better than regular
ropes. The experiment was conducted in Physics Mechanical Lab, 3rd floor, Wazed Building
of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur-5200,
Bangladesh.

Recycled rope vs ordinary rope breaking point graph

70
63.1
60

50
Load(Kg)

40

30
22
19.2
20 17

10
4

0
Jute rope(2mm) Nilon Rope(2mm) Cotton Rope(2mm) Recycled Bottle Polyester
rope(2mm) Rope(2mm)
Samples

Fig-6: Comparison between final product and ordinary ropes (fixed length 1 metre)
A comparable study found that strips with a width of 3mm and a thickness of 0.5mm could
bear a weight of 74N(newton) = 8.2 kg(Wilson et al. 2019) . The width and thickness of
our test sample strips were 10mm and 0.5mm, respectively. The size of our test sample was
3.3 times that of previous research. Our string was expected to have a maximum load of
27.06kg, but it actually had a maximum load of 63.1kg, which was 2.34 times more than
the previous experiment.

CONCLUSION

Recycling waste plastics is an efficient strategy to improve the polymer industry's

environmental performance. This little setup has the potential to make us self-sufficient in
household bottle recycling. This process produces high-quality rope while also preventing a
big number of plastic bottles from entering the environment. Further work may be done to
improve the system's performance and minimize its flaws. Recycling a large number of plastic
bottles can help to combat global warming and carbon emissions. Although using plastic bottles
may appear practical in daily life, their negative effects on the environment cannot be sustained.
Our environment is suffering because we sent so many plastics water bottles to the oceans and
landfills. This machine is highly portable, cost-efficient, and energy-efficient. A large number
of recycling machines can be made using very low cost. Government should support such
project with financial and technical support. Pilot project can be started to find actual
performance of this machine.

Finally, we can say that this study is very successful for making a plastic recycling machine
which produced high quality ropes.

REFERENCES
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following in utero and lactational exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP),
non-monotonic dose–response and low dose effects on rat brain aromatase activity.
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Brooks AL, Wang S, Jambeck JR. 2018. The Chinese import ban and its impact on global
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Lin VS. 2016. Research highlights: impacts of microplastics on plankton. Environmental
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