Company can recycle plastic wastes into chairs
A homegrown recycling firm, Winder Recycling Company, has expressed interest to help the city government of Davao reduce the volume of wastes clogging drainage canals and plastic waste in landfills through his own invented technology called “Utility Model Machine.”
Winchester O. Lemen, managing director of Winder Recycling Company based in Km. 11, Barangay Sasa, said on Wednesday that his invention can process up to 90 tons of plastic waste and convert them into 2,000 school chairs per month.
During the weekly Habi at Kape media forum at Abreeza Mall, Lemen said that 10,000 candy wrappers, 2,156 sando bags and 300 water bottles can make one armchair or table.
“We no longer have to cut trees to make school chairs but plant trees instead and we will no longer have to create landfills that poison our ground water, all we need is to collect the plastic and recycle them through the our help ,” said Lemen.
He said his firm only aims to help reduce plastic waste in landfills and create them into something more beneficial to communities.
According to the Department of Education, Lemen said that the country has a backlog of 1.7 million chairs for our public schools.
“At Winder, we can produce up to 2,000 school chairs per month that are guaranteed to last up to 20 years. It is our way of helping in fill the shortage of chairs in our classrooms,” Lemen added.
He said that the company’s plant can process up to 60- 90 tons or about 90,000 kilos of soft plastic waste.
“What we collect are only soft plastics, not the hard plastics, which still have value for junk shops,” said Lemen.
The chairs, table and desk can easily be mistaken for real wood, and could last up to 20 years, way above the five-year average life-span of wooden chairs, said Lemen.
At the recycling plant, soft plastics such as candy wrappers, junk food wrappers, clothing packages, straws, shampoo and soap sachets, etc. wastes are cleaned first.
“We source out our plastic waste from the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) and other local government in the region,” he said.
After cleaning, the waste will place into storage for melting. After melting, it goes to the mold pressing machine to form parts of the school chair. Then set in another tub to cool off before finally being assembled, sanded and painted on, he explained.
Compared to other school chair manufacturers, Winder will replace broken parts for free. However, they guarantee that these chairs from recycled waste last longer yet cost lesser than wooden ones. Each chair is pegged at P1,000.
“For each chair that we make from recycled plastic waste, we are saving a three-year old tree, which is normally used to manufacture school chairs,” he quipped.
Aside from school chairs and other custom-made furniture, their company plans to build – a 28-square meter, studio-type home, made of 95% plastic from three tons of fire retardant plastic waste.
