ATENEO DE DAVAO UNIVERSITY

E. Jacinto St., Davao City, Philippines

Assembly and Testing of a Mini-Plastic Recycling Plant: Shredder Machine

In partial fulfilment for the requirements in ME 423-ME Lab 2 and ME 422-Methods of

Research for ME

Proponents:
Batuigas, Levi Deo
Cartoneros, John Harvey
Liston, Arie Emmanuel

Introduction
Plastic pollution is one of the major problems that people deal with regarding
solid waste. It involves the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that
affects human and wildlife by degrading the living conditions of their environments and
in result, them as well. Philippines ranked third highest plastic generator in Asia after
China and Indonesia in the year 2015. [1] Davao City produces an average of 198.3
tons of waste per day and five percent of these wastes are hard plastics. [2] Plastic
reduction efforts have been done in some areas around the world which aims to lessen
plastic consumption and pollution and promote recycling of plastics.
The School of Engineering and Architecture of the Ateneo de Davao University
envisions its concern towards the prevention of the degradation of the environment
through the initiative of the Center of Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technologies
(CREATe) would like to respond to the problem of plastic wastes and to promote
recycling of plastics wastes. Through this, the research aims to respond to the
universitys mission and vision with emphasis on Laudato SI, as responsible stewards of
our home.
Objectives of the study
The objective of the study is to fabricate and test a shredder for the mini plastic
recycling plant which is capable of supplying the recycling plant with sufficient reusable
materials for molding of usable items.

Significance of the study

The study also aims to increase awareness for plastic recycling to usable
materials in the Ateneo community as part of Laudato Si. The study looks to promote
plastic recycling within the Ateneo community and help reduce the plastic wastes within
the campus. Likewise, the study aims to increase profit on the recycled materials market
of the city by supplying the plastic plant with clean and sorted plastic. It also aims to be
a place where students may apply the theories they have learned and put them to real
world application and to expose the students to assembly process of different machines
to expose them to real-world working environments such in procurement, and the
limitations of manufacturing and fabrication.
Scope and Limitation
The plastic shredder shall be limited to the volume of plastic it ca shred based on
dimensions, as bigger pieces of plastics will have to be chopped of and harder plastics
will have to be shredded longer. The machine shall remain inside the Ateneo de Davao
Univeristy until improvements are implemented.

Review of Related Literature

Shredders for Plastics-Plastic Shredding & Plastic Shredding for Post-Consumer
Plastics

Plastic shredding is a very important part of recycling plastics. Plastic shredding

itself is very tricky due to the different types of plastics as well as its geometric
characteristics. For the reasons above, it is important to design a shredder based on the
type of plastic to be shredded. [3]
Plastic recycling in one of the fastest growing markets caused by scarcity of
resources and increasing energy costs. There are a lot of possibilities for the daily
plastic wastes we produce to be reused. The best example is the PET bottle which can
be recycled to yarns and fibers for the textile industry, or fuel for boilers since they have
a high calorific value.