P18434: Nicaragua Bottle Upcycling Business Development
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Project Summary Project Information

Our senior design project involves the town of El Sauce, Nicaragua, which currently has a very limited waste management system, and no recycling process. All of the trash is collected by a small truck, which is manned by four people within the city boundaries, and then it’s thrown into a landfill. A local family sifts through the trash in the landfill for the plastic bottles, and sells them in bulk to Gravitas. Gravitas then shreds the plastic and sends the shreds to China for sale and distribution to companies who will use them to make new products, mainly polyester for clothing.

The goal of our project is to develop a business model, supply chain, facilities layout model, and quality control procedures for a bottle upcycling system for El Sauce. The expected result is a functional prototype of a system that can process bottles in preparation for upcycling.

An updated project description is available here

4 Walls Project The Enlace Project RIT MSD

Project Name
Nicaragua Bottle Upcycling Business Development
Project Number
P18434
Start Term
F2017
End Term
S2018
Faculty Guide
  • Gerry Garavuso
  • Email: gxgddm@rit.edu
Primary Customers
  • Kellan Morgan
    • Organization: Enlace Project
    • Email: kellanpmorgan@gmail.com
  • Bonnie Yannie
    • Organization: 4 Walls Project
    • Email: bonnieyannie@gmail.com
  • Sally Kuehl (4 Walls Project)
    • Organization: 4 Walls Project
    • Email: bksk74@frontiernet.net
Sponsor (financial support)
RIT MSD

Team Members

Jack Powers, Thien Nguyen, Emily Rosenthal, Yingyan Guan, and our guide Gerald Garavuso

Jack Powers, Thien Nguyen, Emily Rosenthal, Yingyan Guan, and our guide Gerald Garavuso

Member Role Contact
Thien Nguyen Project Manager tqn6053@rit.edu
Yingyan Guan Lead Engineer yxg8946@rit.edu
Jack Powers Lead Economic and Data Analyst jxp3483@rit.edu
Emily Rosenthal Lead Sustainable Engineer exr3888@rit.edu

Work Breakdown: By Phase

MSD I & II MSD I MSD II

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

Imagine RIT

Gate Reviews

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)

Work Breakdown: By Topic

Project Management Design Tools Design Documentation Implementation Validation Presentation & Dissemination

PRP

Requirements

Schedule

Cost

Risk Management

Problem Management

Communication & Minutes

Use Cases

Benchmarking

Functional Decomposition

Morphological Chart

Pugh Concept Selection

BOM

Mechanical Drawings

Electrical Schematics

Software Diagrams

Facility Layout

Manuals

Mockups

Test Fixtures

Prototyping

Test Plans

Analysis Results

Simulations

Test Results

Design Review Documents

Technical Paper

Poster

Imagine RIT Exhibit

Acknowledgements