Modern Day Alchemy: In Goes Plastic….Out Comes Steel!
The word alchemy brings to mind images of magicians turning lead into gold, which seems fanciful at best. However, researchers at the University of New South Wales have developed a modern form of alchemy – using waste plastic as an ingredient in steelmaking! The project, which has won the Federal Government’s Fresh Innovators award, replaces up to 30% of coal used in making steel with types of plastic that are usually non-recyclable, killing two birds with one stone. This is very encouraging, considering that in 2002, only 13% of plastics were recycled. To give you an idea of how much plastic is available for making steel, over one million tonnes are dumped in Australia each year. It’s expected that virtually no toxic emissions will be produced because the steelmaking furnaces operate at such a high temperature. Ed Giles spoke to Professor Veena Sahajwalla, the director of the project, at the University of New South Wales.