Payakumbuh (ANTARA) - Starting from only managing plastic waste to be chopped, Minda Riszana and her worker Ramadhan have innovated to manage non-economic plastic waste into paving blocks.
Minda said that she had started managing waste since 2017 with her colleague Saga Putra Syahrun who owned that place in Gaduik, Nagari Batu Payuang, Lareh Sago Halaban District, Limapuluh Kota Regency.
Initially, she and Saga only tried to manage plastic waste into something of value.
However, there is still a lot of waste that cannot be processed and has accumulated even more in its place, even though it is already managing the waste.
I have tried to think about how to manage this unprocessed, chopped, and uneconomical waste. Because it is impossible to burn and cannot be buried because it takes hundreds of years to decompose.
Based on this, she and Ramadan are trying to innovate by managing the waste into ready-to-use paving blocks, which will take up to six months.
Furthermore, it also takes three months to test the strength of the paving blocks that have been made.
During three months, she tried the strengths of paving blocks starting from drying in hot, rainy weather and seeing whether the paving blocks have moss.
"We are also trying to drip oil, lubricant and others to see if it will be destroyed when used for parking. For strength it has also been tested, and can be used for parking," she added.
She said that in one day she could only produce 100 paving blocks because the processing is still manual and she is still has two employees.
"Currently we see a response from the community. However, the business and mission to save the earth must be considered. Later, if the response is good, we will certainly look for more sophisticated machines," she said.
Now, she said, the paving blocks that she made have been installed in the Payakumbuh Mayor's Office.
Furthermore, she admitted that she still lacked the raw materials to make this. For this reason, she really hoped that the community will participate in this by selling all kinds of plastic waste.
"People must know that waste has economic value. We need all plastic waste, from plastic bags, shampoo wrappers and so on," she said.
She said, for one meter of paving blocks were sold Rp180 thousand. Because our paving blocks are break-resistant, stronger, more durable, and anti-moss.
Transleted by: Mutiara Ramadhani
In Luak Limopuluah, plastic waste can be processed into paving blocks
A worker is making paving blocks from plastic waste. (Antara / Akmal Saputra)
