Micro plastic recycling business helps cut waste

A one-time welder Gerard Anthony Costa is busy these days recycling shredded plastic in a moulding machine in his backyard in Ja-Ela. The high-powered machine produces 200,000 small plastic tubes a month. He makes an earning of  about Rs 45,000 a month.

 This round cylinder ring is then used widely to hold together rolls of pricing labels. Residents in his area who are seeking to earn some extra money by collecting discarded paint buckets or water bottles supply the plastic to his workshop. 

However he has not got the space to store all the items that they bring and has to resort to buying shredded plastic. The cost of buying the plastic is Rs 85 a kilo,  while if he could source it and shred it himself the cost would drop to Rs 50 a kilo. He knows of 30 other small business in his area that uses the same production techniques. 

The machine can mould other small items of which he is keen to produce a clothespin that is made in China. This plastic clip is sold around the world and could very easily be manufactured locally to the same standards. However the metal that gives the clip its spring cannot be found in the domestic market at Mr Costa’s biggest problem is getting the material at a fair cost.

He says, “if the government would provide a better collection system for plastic it would help him as well as the environment.” He also said that the collection of discarded plastic would reduce the spread of dieses such as Dengue, as the plastic can collect water and thus mosquitos are able to bred.

Pix and story by Dilantha Dissanayake