Team:Imperial College/The Waste Issue

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<h1>Background</h1>
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<h1>The Waste Issue</h1>
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<b>Modules:</b>
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<p>
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<p>Our project is Plasticity. The project can be divided into 3 modules. Firstly, we designed a <span style="color:#00f"><b>[https://2013.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/Waste_Cocktail waste degradation module]</b></span>, which can be further sub-divided into 3 separate modules. These sub-modules are that of PolyURethane <span style="color:#00f"><b>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane PUR] degradation</b></span>, PolyLactic Acid <span style="color:#00f"><b>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid PLA] degradation</b></span>, and Poly-3-HydroxyButyrate <span style="color:#00f"><b>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate P3HB] degradation</b></span>. As many plastic products are produced as <b>mixed plastics</b>, this conglomerate of degradative bacteria will successfully <b>degrade petrochemical plastics and bioplastics</b>. In addition to this, using our second module, we will have <span style="color:#00f"><b>[https://2013.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/PHB_Recycling bioplastic recycling]</b></span>. We intend to synthesise P3HB, a bioplastic from its constituent monomers, that are in themselves, a byproduct of our degradation pathway. The third is the <span style="color:#00f"><b>[https://2013.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/Secretion_Toolkit secretion toolkit]</b></span>. This will incorporate the existing secretion biobricks contained within the registry along with those that we have designed and chemically synthesised. These will be transformed into a plasmid in our chassis, E. coli. This will thus permit any future iGEM team to <b>extract their desired secretion tags </b>for use in their construct. With the addition of <b>characterisation data</b>, this will provide a thorough platform to inform decision making for secretion tags.</p>
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Due to the necessities of living we are always going to produce waste. Couple this with a human population of over 7 billion and increasing consumerism around the world and this waste really starts to add up. Here we explain the extent of the issue and how our system helps to tackle it.
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<b>The Problem: Waste Mountains</b>
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<b>A World of Waste</b>
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<p>Waste is a major byproduct of our free market society. Every year, over 3 billion tonnes (Gt) of waste are produced within the European Union [http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/]. This includes municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial and hazardous waste. Of this waste, 10% is plastic. Even more significantly, this represents only a fraction of the world's population, approximately 500 million live within the EU. When we look at the American figures, we see that solely industrial waste comes to around 7.6 Gt [http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/guide/], and this figure was from the 1980s, since then it has no doubt increased per capita as it has in Europe. Frighteningly, this value does not incorporate the global waste production, which since the rise of China has expanded hugely.
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<p>Each year over four billion tonnes of solid waste - hazardous, industrial and municipal is produced within Europe. We have estimated that between 2005 to 2050, enough waste will be produced to create a mountain half the size of Everest. Plastic waste alone, at ten percent of the total will produce a mountain the size of Mont Blanc, the largest mountain in the EU. Plastic waste is a particular problem due to its seemingly infinite lifetime in the environment and issues with recycling it when it is mixed with other materials. The best known results of plastic accumulation are its harmful effects on marine life. However it can also break down into small pieces and toxic byproducts as well. The mismanagement of waste is not only leading to severe environmental problems but social ones also. The shipping of waste around the world is a disturbing problem but one that makes economic sense. This needs to change.
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Much of this waste is sent to landfill. If even a fraction of this were successfully degraded and purified, this would provide both metabolites and feedstock for the production of existing petrochemical plastics and bioplastics in our bacteria. We plan to grow our E. coli within bioreactors together in order to breakdown mixed plastics into their component monomers. In so doing, we will circumvent existing problems in recycling technologies that are thwarted by contamination by even minute concentrations present in a non-pure plastic.
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[[File:Mountains4.png|thumbnail|center|900px|Europe's new mountain range; Peaks of Waste]]
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<br> <br>
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<b>Solid Recovered Fuel is our target</b>
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<p>If plastics are kept chemically pure and physically separated then they can often be recycled and reused. When they are mixed however with food waste and other items then there are only two end of life solutions, landfill or incineration. Solid recovered fuel(SRF) is one of these mixed wastes. It results from the processes recovering valuable materials from waste in mixed recycling facilities. It consists of all the small fragments of plastic, wood, paper and fibre which are too small to be separated further by the recovery machines. Twenty percent of what enters a recovery facility leaves as SRF. Just one of these recovery facilities in north-west London produces 320,000 tonnes of SRF a year. This is a waste product, costing the facilities millions in disposal and ending up at incinerators where toxic chemicals are released into the atmosphere along with large amounts of CO2. Incineration is a one-time-only affair; the resources which went into the production of these materials are lost to the atmosphere.  
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[[File:FireySRF.png|thumbnail|center|900px|Solid Recovered Fuel(SRF) contains finite resources which are currently used inefficiently.]]
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<b>References</b>
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<b>Our Solution</b>
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<p>[1] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/</p>
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<p>Our system is designed to recover the valuable resources locked up in the SRF, transforming it from a waste material into the commodities ethylene glycol and poly-3-hydroxybutyrate; a feedstock for many applications and a useful bioplastic respectively.
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<p>[2] http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/guide/</p>
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<h2>References</h2>
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<li id="r2">This is something else</li>
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<li id="r3">This is something else</li>
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<li id="r4">This is something else</li>
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Latest revision as of 22:28, 16 September 2013

The Waste Issue

Due to the necessities of living we are always going to produce waste. Couple this with a human population of over 7 billion and increasing consumerism around the world and this waste really starts to add up. Here we explain the extent of the issue and how our system helps to tackle it.



A World of Waste

Each year over four billion tonnes of solid waste - hazardous, industrial and municipal is produced within Europe. We have estimated that between 2005 to 2050, enough waste will be produced to create a mountain half the size of Everest. Plastic waste alone, at ten percent of the total will produce a mountain the size of Mont Blanc, the largest mountain in the EU. Plastic waste is a particular problem due to its seemingly infinite lifetime in the environment and issues with recycling it when it is mixed with other materials. The best known results of plastic accumulation are its harmful effects on marine life. However it can also break down into small pieces and toxic byproducts as well. The mismanagement of waste is not only leading to severe environmental problems but social ones also. The shipping of waste around the world is a disturbing problem but one that makes economic sense. This needs to change.



Europe's new mountain range; Peaks of Waste



Solid Recovered Fuel is our target

If plastics are kept chemically pure and physically separated then they can often be recycled and reused. When they are mixed however with food waste and other items then there are only two end of life solutions, landfill or incineration. Solid recovered fuel(SRF) is one of these mixed wastes. It results from the processes recovering valuable materials from waste in mixed recycling facilities. It consists of all the small fragments of plastic, wood, paper and fibre which are too small to be separated further by the recovery machines. Twenty percent of what enters a recovery facility leaves as SRF. Just one of these recovery facilities in north-west London produces 320,000 tonnes of SRF a year. This is a waste product, costing the facilities millions in disposal and ending up at incinerators where toxic chemicals are released into the atmosphere along with large amounts of CO2. Incineration is a one-time-only affair; the resources which went into the production of these materials are lost to the atmosphere.



Solid Recovered Fuel(SRF) contains finite resources which are currently used inefficiently.



Our Solution

Our system is designed to recover the valuable resources locked up in the SRF, transforming it from a waste material into the commodities ethylene glycol and poly-3-hydroxybutyrate; a feedstock for many applications and a useful bioplastic respectively.


References

  1. This is some reference
  2. This is something else
  3. This is something else
  4. This is something else
  5. This is something else
  6. This is something else
  7. This is something else

Our Sponsors

TueSponsorsEppendorf.png 125px Invitrogen.jpg Geneart.jpg CSynBI.JPG

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