Eco Factor: Recycling plastic bottles to generate solar, wind, wave and hydroelectricity.
If you summarize the problems the environment faces today, the end result would be two main issues – the increase in landfill waste, which mainly consists of trashed plastic bottles, and the reduction in energy supply to fuel our hi-tech living. Industrial designer Chris Allen has come up with an ingenious solution to both the problems in a project he calls “The Plastic Plan.”
The project requires the collection of millions of plastic bottles with their caps on from landfills and carbon-intensive recycling plants and turns them into thousands of cubes, which can float on the ocean surface. Thousands of similar cubes can be joined together to form an offshore structure, similar in size to three football fields stacked one on top of the other.
The platform can then be floated offshore major cities, and solar, wind and wave energy generation system can be mounted on the platform. These renewable energy generating system fuel water pumps with the goal of pumping sea water 30 meters or more up to the reservoir structure made by joining the plastic bottle cubes. This water will then be used to generate hydroelectricity by pumping it onto hydroelectric turbines. The energy generated by the system can easily be transported back to the shore, up the power grid and into your homes.
The plan minimizes plastic waste and uses it to create a type of dam on the ocean, which also removes the issues of a decline in water levels in dammed rivers. Chris believes that the Gulf of Mexico offshore of New Orleans is the perfect location for the first cluster of islands, and when harnessed properly and at a scale no one ever thought of, can end the escalating energy crisis and fuel the world with clean, zero-emission energy.
Via: The Plastic Plan
