Country: Indonesia
School: Sekolah Alam Palembang - Senior High School
Contacts: nurbaitiekasari.nz@gmail.com, yourlink7000@gmail.com
(Our team: from left to right; Thoriq, Widad, and Imad)
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic nation with 17,000 islands stretching 5,150 kilometers along the equator. This means that distribution of goods takes a lot of money. This includes fossils fuel, of which Indonesia is very dependent. In some remote islands, fuel costs twice the price in main islands; Java and Sumatra.
Meanwhile, over 500 billion pounds of new plastic are manufactured each year. Roughly 1/3 of them are single use and immediately thrown away. Of this waste, only 9% are recycled, mostly in developed countries. Many developing countries, including Indonesia, do not recycle their waste at all. Wastes end up dumped into landfills, or even worse, oceans. Indonesia is second only to China in polluting the ocean with garbage.
Our project focused on developing a prototype of simple plastic-into-fuel generator. It could process mainly polyethylene and polypropylene. Styrofoam and PVC are not recommended. The resulting fuel contains less sulfur, therefore it produces less pollution. Compared to bio-ethanol making, producing fuel from plastic emit less carbon. Our modified reactor could produce three different types of fuel, categorized by octane number. We have been using these fuels for many purposes, including for vehicles.
This small-scale device can be made easily, and it could be implemented in most outer, isolated islands to provide fuels while reducing the plastic waste. It's like killing two bird with one strike.
Currently, we are seeking to cooperate with the government of the City of Palembang, as they have recently developed a similar system to operate in one of its subdistrict. Aside from campaigning through events, we have also developed an educational video game to teach youths about waste-processing. Digital campaign are done through YouTube channel and other social media.