Research and development of a new waste collection bin to facilitate education in plastic recycling

ABSTRACT

Plastic recycling has been an alternative method for solid waste management apart from landfill and incineration. However, recycling quality is affected when all plastics are discarded into a single recycling bin that increases cross contaminations and operation cost to the recycling industry. Following the engineering design process, a new eight-compartment plastic waste collection bin is designed to facilitate plastic recycling and sorting at source, which also provides insight to educators about problem solving on environmental issues. The volumes of plastic wastes collected match the design dimensions well. Further education about plastic recycling is required to improve the recycling quality.