A specially-equipped ship is configured for environmental cleanup to collect plastic waste floating in the ocean. A method of using the ship is described. The specially-equipped ship can retrieve floating plastic waste in the ocean, shred it, melt it, and cool it to form a solidified block that is usefully employed to form an artificial reef on the ocean floor to house aquatic biota. The ship is outfitted with a conveyor belt fixed to the ship; a furnace to make molten plastic; a davit to drop the solidified block into the ocean to form a reef on the ocean floor. Optionally the ship includes a mold to contain molten plastic; a shredder; a storage compartment to receive plastic particles from the shredder; a fish escape; a vertical wall; a boring machine; photovoltaic cells and/or windmills to produce electric energy.

The present invention relates to a composition comprising a polymeric network having at least one unit of formula (I), (II), and/or (III); (I) (II) (III) wherein said composition is obtained by contacting at least one compound A comprising at least two functions selected from the group of function of formula X—C(═O)—CHR.sup.1—C(═O)—R.sup.2, —C(═O)—C—R.sup.2; or —C(═O)—CR.sup.1═CR.sup.2—NR.sup.4R.sup.5; wherein at least 25% by weight of compounds A have a functionality ≦5, with % by weight relative to the total weight of compounds A; with at least one compound B comprising at least one NH.sub.2, or NH.sub.3.sup.+ groups; wherein X, R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, R.sup.4, R.sup.5, L.sup.1 and L.sup.2 have the same meaning as that defined in the claims. The present invention also relates to a compound comprising at least two units and at most 5 units of formula (I), (II), and/or (III); wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, X, L.sup.1 and L.sup.2 have the same meaning as that defined in the claims. The present invention also relates to processes for preparing said composition and said compounds, to material, articles, and polymers comprising or using said compositions and compounds, and the use thereof.

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A method of recycling tires comprising the comprising the steps of: placing tires and/or pieces of tires within a casing or mold, applying a binder (e.g. adhesives and/or pining with screws, nails, nuts and bolts, pins, wire and steel or nylon bands etc) to the tires and/or pieces of tires so that the tires are bound together; applying a reinforcing means to the tires and/or pieces of tires (e.g. fitting the reinforcing means around, in between and/or through the tires etc); and melting or pouring an encapsulating means over the top of the tires and reinforcing means to encapsulate them inside the casing or mold and the encapsulating means; and causing or allowing the encapsulating means to set such that a recycled product is formed.

A method for grinding plastic waste includes mixing 30 to 80 wt % of plastic waste and 20 to 70 wt % of a woodchip by a mixer after equalizing the size of a diameter or a side thereof so as to be 5 mm or less, and grinding a mixture thereof into a fine powder with a particle size of 1 mm or less by a grinding device including a rotor rotating at a high speed.

A process for manufacturing an article made of recovered rubber crumb is provided. According to the process:

a) crumb particles are mixed with particles of a solute;

b) a molded article is produced by molding the mixture from step a) in a closed mold under predetermined temperature and pressure conditions; and

c) the molded article is brought into contact with a solvent so as to dissolve at least one portion of the particles of said solute.

A method of producing a granulated product from photopolymer printing plate materials. The method includes the steps of (a) sorting the photopolymer printing plate materials based on an identifiable property, wherein the photopolymer printing plate materials comprise one or more photopolymer layers; (b) grinding the photopolymer printing plate materials to particles; and (c) screening the particles to remove particles above a certain size and create the granulated product.

Presented are manufacturing systems, methods, and devices for forming footwear using scrap or waste plastic materials. A method for manufacturing an article of footwear, such as an athletic shoe, begins with receiving a batch of recycled plastic, which may include thermoplastic elastomers or ethylene-vinyl acetate, and grinding the batch of recycled plastic material. The ground recycled material is processed, for example, by adding a foaming agent that activates at elevated temperatures. The processed recycled material is placed into the internal cavity of a final mold that is shaped like a segment of the footwear, such as a unitary sole structure. To form the footwear segment, the processed recycled material is heated past the threshold activation temperature of the foaming agent such that the foaming agent causes the recycled material to expand and fill the internal cavity of the final mold. The formed footwear segment is then extracted from the mold.

A recycling and fabrication appliance is provided. The recycling and fabrication appliance is generally configured to convert solid waste, solid materials and/or solid objects into a usable or reusable product. The recycling and fabrication appliance generally comprises a single unit with one or more inputs and one or more outputs. The unit may be a cuboid, or may be any appropriate shape, and may specifically be configured to recycle or repurpose solid waste, solid materials or solid objects into a reusable form at or near the point of consumption or disposal, such as a household or office. The components of the recycling and fabrication appliance may be housed within the unit and may enable the recycling and fabrication appliance to receive various solid waste pieces as an input and to produce a single usable output, referred to herein as a output object.

A method of upcycling fiber reinforced polymer source material by disassembling the source material into sections; planking the sections into longitudinal pieces; separating core material from the source material in the longitudinal pieces to make composite strips; preparing the composite strips; and remanufacturing the prepared composite strips into an article.

A cellulose fiber composite recycled resin having excellent strength, and a method for producing the same. The cellulose fiber composite recycled resin contains a recycled resin and a mixture of fibrous cellulose, at least one of resin powders and resin pellets, and at least one substance selected from the group consisting of phthalic acid, phthalates, derivatives of phthalic acid, and derivatives of phthalates. For producing this composite resin, at least one of resin powders and resin pellets are added to a slurry of cellulose fibers to obtain a first mixture, a recycled resin is mixed into the first mixture to obtain a second mixture, and the second mixture is kneaded, wherein part or all of the cellulose fibers are fine fibers.