Currently in Haiti, and in other developing nations, there is an overabundance of recyclable plastic bottles with no clear path to recycling a substantial number of the bottles. This leads to accumulation of this waste which may end up in the ocean and can be hazardous as well. Because of this supply of bottles it makes sense to find, or create, a way to upcycle these bottles into a useful/salable product while simultaneously employing people in a very underemployed nation.

Our task is to develop a process and associated tools/systems to process the excess bottles into usable string, and then that string into usable and salable rope. Economic analysis will need to be done to determine the required setup of production lines in order for the system to be profitable.

Project Name

Plastic Bottle Rope Machine

Project Number

P18432

Project Family

Sustainability

Start Term

2171

End Term

2175

Faculty Guide

Art North, ajnddm@rit.edu

Primary Customer

Sarah Brownell, contact

Sponsor (Financial Support)

MSD

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

Imagine RIT

Gate Reviews

Notes

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Preliminary Detailed Design

Detailed Design

Build & Test Prep

Subsystem Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test

Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation (Verification & Validation)