Starting (my) Recycling in Jan 2023 - first project making 'Styro-Clay' out of Styrofoam waste!!
Monday, December 5, 2022 at 10:04PM A pity to see that a community like Thetis Island is incapable to find a sustainable solution for recycling material. In one of these 'recycling meeting' I saw some unbelieving looks as I recommended to recycle the most recyclable plastic material (like PE,PET, PP,HDPE,PS) and cardboard/clean paper on Thetis. Instead of using this 'out of sight - out of mind' solution like it is always 'very trendy' to see everywhere or believing dropping recycling material off/shipping would actually be recycled.
For me I think make 'waste' into things we can use here on the island is the only real solution! I was even willing to volunteer at least half day per week(no pay!!!) to run process this recycling but well.... you have all seen the result of the Thetis Island recycling. I think my recommendation wasn't even considered at all. People seem to be scared of solutions and especially getting their hands dirty or scared to fail. By the way nothing is impossible everything can be done if you really want to! And cost...believing any solution would be for free - wrong!! >> NO solution today will be a very expensive solution in the future. I believe in solving problems now not leaving it up to the next generation.
But since it is not up to me to judge what people believe/should believe about a sustainable future I will move on with my personal recycling project and do my part or what I can do.
The first material I will start recycling/reuse is Styrofoam to make ( my version of) 'Styro-Clay'. Something which can be done easily and seem to be available in abundance. I call it 'styro-clay' - a different monolithic material. It is just a mixture of shredded Styrofoam with a little bit clay as a 'glue'. I don't think anyone is using it that way. Making use of waste and rebuild it into something useful seems obvious to me. Styro-clay works well as insulation (>>the Styrofoam part) and as moisture barrier/regulator(>>the clay part) instead of dry wall/fiber-glass/rock-wool and vapour barrier as a 'mould generator'. Styro-clay is certainly not as high in insulation value as solid Styrofoam sheets (same thickness!)but it can be used as a 100% indefinitely reusable insulation material. If you have to rebuild any project soften it with water and use it again. I will use it as insulation for our outdoor kitchen and cold storage and fill it into the wood frame. It will certainly work well in the garage/workshop or any other outbuilding too. And will certainly be less a fire hazard as pure Styrofoam sheets. The clay part even protect wood framing. And if you need higher insulation value just increase the wall thickness!!
But sorry the BC building code doesn't know this material - they not even have clay in their building code as building material(although clay is only used since thousands of years as building material !?!). So you may run into headaches when you use it as insulation for your residence. I could certainly write a book about woodchip/clay insulation using it in our residence and the BC building code. :)
However, please keep all Styrofoam packing blocks/forms(fillings of boxes) and store it for now. I need several qm for my first project. Beginning of the 2023 I will have my shredder received and running and I will start collecting Styrofoam. I will post it!! Sorry I can not use meat trays or egg cartons etc. I need to have the real little Polystyrene balls as final shredded product.
And heads up my next projects will be cardboard - making fire starter(or maybe bricks) and the following project is to shred and extrude/form plastics into useful things - like flowerpots, buckets, clips, clamps, handles etc. jsu what I need. But I will post it when this will start.
Contact please call/text: 250-3018499 or e-mail: matthias.zapletal@gmail.com
