Idea 417 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Plastic-recycling units making building products from the beach and river waste
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Collect a sack of plastic from one beach or riverbank and weigh it, then find a small press or mould operator willing to turn a test batch into paving tiles, fence posts or roof sheets. Take the samples to two hardware shops and a building contractor and ask what they would pay compared with what they stock. The proof is a price quoted by a buyer for a product made from waste.
- Who pays first
- A hardware shop or small builder looking for cheaper paving and fencing, who buys if the product holds up and undercuts what they stock now.
- What leaves today
- Plastic waste fouls the beaches the tourist trade sells, while builders buy their materials in; one unit turns a liability into stock for local builders.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
Idea 417 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.