In looking around in our communities we saw the need for renewable fuel systems around Peru. Specifically in rural Peruvian households, as 84% of rural individuals use fuelwood for cooking (energypedia.info) thus a large part of our country's population is exposed to tiny particles created by the combustion of natural fuels (such as coal and wood) which could potentially damage their respiratory systems. Furthermore, in our country we also saw in the communities practices how less than 15% of recyclable waste is recycled (Nordern.diva), and such in our we saw the potential to help our community through both the creation of renewable energy through genetic modification and hardware engineering and the educational campaigns that we sought to implement with them.
Our approach within sustainability:
Affordable and Clean Energy & Responsible Consumption and Production
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, "Affordable and Clean Energy”, focuses on ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy. This goal goes in hand, in our case, with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, “Responsible consumption and production”, which aims to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production.
By converting plastic waste into ethanol, our project offers an innovative way to address plastic pollution and generate a sustainable energy source. Ethanol is a promising alternative to fossil fuels, offering a potential path toward diversification and reduced reliance on nonrenewable fossil fuels. Moreover, decreasing reliance on foreign oil will have an economic and geopolitical benefit by reducing vulnerability to oil price fluctuations and disruptions in the global oil market.
Furthermore, fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to the phenomenon of global warming. In contrast, ethanol has considerably lower greenhouse gas emissions and less harmful pollutants than conventional gasoline. Additionally, ethanol can help decrease smog formation and enhance the overall quality of air. Furthermore, ethanol has numerous practical applications that can benefit our day-to-day lives, such as ethanol-based stoves, heating solutions, and fuel additives. By utilizing ethanol in a responsible and sustainable manner, we can promote more environmentally friendly practices and limit our impact on the planet.
Not only that, but, plastic waste is a readily available and abundant feedstock for ethanol production. Fostering the principles of circular consumption, which is an essential aspect of SDG 12. Allowing repurposing of the plastic waste located in landfills, oceans, and other ecosystems, promoting responsible production of ethanol. Conversely, fossil fuels, are non-renewable resources that are limited in supply and take millions of years to form.
Life Below Water & Life on Land
Lastly, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, “Life below water”, aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. Similarly, SDG 15, “Life on land”, aims to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and cessation of land degradation and biodiversity depletion.
Plastics that end up in the oceans cause detrimental harm to marine life, disrupt ecosystems, and degrade water quality. Therefore, our project manages marine plastic pollution by transforming plastic waste into ethanol, reducing the amount of plastic entering marine environments.
Oceans are not the only ones affected by plastic, but also terrestrial ecosystems. Plastic contaminates soil, harms wildlife, and contributes to ecological imbalances. Our project would mitigate the impact of plastic waste on land. In addition to that, repurposing plastic waste as a feedstock for ethanol production can help us reduce the need for raw materials and promote sustainable land use practices. In this way, our project has the potential to contribute to overall environmental sustainability and indirectly support efforts to combat desertification and halt land degradation.
Our approach in reaching out to our stakeholders:
In Human Practices we wanted two works with three main categories of actors. First companies who were plastic producers and or where involved in the Peruvian plastic industry. Secondly, NGOs that focused on providing resources to Andean communities were our main target. Thirdly, we wanted to work with actors who were involved in renewable energy or the creation of by-products from plastic. From these actors we could learn some of the constraints that our project could hold, and further explore partnerships in renewable energy.
Preliminary research on possible actors of interest.
We met with a leader in the industry, a head of the plastic company, and thus in such discourse we learned about the extreme lack of awareness in Peru regarding waste management, as well as the informal recycling collection centers scattered throughout Peru. Furthermore, we continued such discourse for almost a month through an exchange of email where it allowed us to gain some other valuable contacts in the industry that we could later persue.
Additionally we met with Ayudando Abrigando, an NGO Works that works with PET, and PAT plastic. To create fabric from plastic components. They explained how they burned and then formed a “plastiline” to create independent threads that are then woven into clothes and fabrics. In our conversation we discussed the mediums by which they collected plastic, and the sorting facilities they utilized such as “Fabrica Olin” which helped direct our research into other helpful actors. In our conversations we were able to learn about some of the challenges that they faced in sorting and recycling plastic in Peru, as well as challenges they faced in working with sorting facilities, specifically the cost of recycling such plastic before it’s created into new products; both in the transportation and in the shredding process. Although we hope to create independent recycling units that create ethanol in those local communities, our project can also be implemented through larger scale workings where we can work with some of the helpful sorting facilities that Ayudando Abrigando utilizes as well as work with such facilities to further understand the processes we must follow to effectively recycle that plastic.
References:
“Peru Energy Situation.” Energypedia, energypedia.info/wiki/Peru_Energy_Situation. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023. “Climate Action in Peru Nordic, Support for Waste Sector Management Yields Results.” Nordic Council of Ministers.