TECHNOLOGY TO RECYCLE PLASTIC INTO NYLON

[Anchor Lead]

More than 140,000 tons of plastic waste are estimated to pollute the seas each year. To help solve this issue, Korea is attempting to recycle the harmful plastic into useful materials such as nylon or aggregate.

[Pkg]

From fishing nets to fish traps. It is estimated that more than 140,000 tons of garbage pollute the seas around Korea every year.

[Soundbite] Joo Hae-gun(Trawlnet Fisherman) : "The seas are ruined by waste. It can’t be seen from land but when we go out to sea, we can see that waters on all three sides are rotting."

Annually, 44,000 tons of used fishing nets are thrown away in the sea to cause 300 million fish to get trapped in the nets and die. Now Korea has developed a way to produce nylon from these fishing nets. Salinity and impurities are washed away from the nets to produce only pure nylon. A patent has been applied for this technology and mass production has already begun.

[Soundbite] Jeong Taek-su(Plastic Waste Recycler) : "We are planning to build a factory that recycles fishing nets. Once the factory is built, we will collect used fishing nets and recycle them into nylon."

Buoys, plastic bottles, fishing nets and other sea waste are frozen at extremely low temperatures before undergoing a powderization process. The waste materials are frozen with the leftover heat produced when liquified natural gas or hydrogen vessels are propelled. Then the frozen waste is pulverized into powder. Waste is reduced to one-tenth of its original volume.

[Soundbite] Lee Je-myeong(Director, Hydrogen Ship Technology Center) : "Once the pulverization facility is equipped on an existing eco-friendly vessel, we can efficiently collect recyclable waste."

It appears that investing 4 billion won in annual ship operation would result in processing sea waste amounting to 18 billion won. The nylon can be used for diverse materials, such as the aggregate that goes into concrete. It takes 80 billion won per year to process sea waste. Keen attention is now being paid to this eco-friendly recycling technology that turns waste into useful resources.