Promoting Circular Economy around Plastic Waste: A New Design of Recycled Plastic Shredder

Abstract

The development and construction of the plastic shredder presented here is part of the MAREA Plastic project, which aims to be a meeting point between the university community and society, through science and technology. The project’s main goal consists in developing a circular economy environment that reduces both, the input of raw materials and the output of waste, closing the ecological and economic flows of resources. Thereby, this machine becomes essential for the continuation and proper development of such a research and social awareness project. The new version of the plastic shredder entails a solid design that meets the needs and requirements of the task assigned in its working environment, focusing on its design and manufacture from a sustainable point of view, reusing parts of the prototype itself, as well as other disused resources, mostly provided by the University of Malaga. This concept of sustainability even extends to its operation, controlling the consumption of the engine and paying special attention to durability, reliability and, above all, the safety of both, users and the shredder itself. Among other design priorities, the possibility to visualise and perfectly understand how and why the reused plastic passes through the shredder is one of the most important due to the educational purpose of the project towards a younger audience about circular economy. To achieve this, the machine should not only be able to show the process in an illustrative way, but also the interaction with the machine should be simple and fluid, without the need for previous knowledge or experience operating industrial machinery.