What if we could re-manufacture plastic at the rural and remote locations it becomes waste?
What if people in rural and remote areas around the world had the information they need to be able to work with plastic safely? What if rural, remote, and/or Indigenous communities in Canada could safely make plastic ‘waste’ into new products and artwork that their community can use, sell, and enjoy?
The Plastics Remanufacture Project works to prove and/or improve existing research by Precious Plastic, who are currently providing templates for plastics recycling around the world. We aim to answer health, safety, and environment questions on how we can safely work with plastic with short, open-source videos.
REAC’s Research Partnership
Working with Dr. Rafiq Ahmad and the SMART Lab at the University of Alberta department of mechanical engineering, our research looked at whether small scale recycling equipment was safe for humans and the environment.
Testing with specialized filters and a lab specializing in finding dioxins and furans showed us that small scale recycling equipment does not produce these dangerous, endocrine disrupting chemicals that occur when plastic is burned.
Subsequent research by our research partners, and our research videos, follow:
Dr. Rafiq Ahmad
Deep Dive
REAC announces our new fundraising campaign for Precious Plastics equipment from Citizen Scientific workshop. This equipment will be provided to the rural, remote, or Indigenous community with the best business plan to remanufacture their community's plastic.
TVOC Monitoring
INTERVIEWS
REAC has been acquiring knolwedge about plastics by interviewing experts in the field of independent plastics recycling, plastic science, and rural, remote and Indigenous waste management
Below, after a brief introduction by REAC Director Jule Asterisk are interviews completed by Environmental Sociology students enrolled in the Community Service Learning program at the University of Alberta
Jule 'what is the PRP’
Tammy Schwass
Corey Saban
Dr. Sara-Jeanne Roye
Christina Seidel
David Ultis
