How do you like the idea of using recycled toilet paper for laying bike paths? While you are all thinking, the Netherlands has already found the answer to this question for itself, thanks to an innovative scheme for recycling used material. According to statistics, about 180,000 tons of toilet paper are used annually in this country. Two local companies - CirTec and KNN Cellulose - have developed technology for recycling toilet paper into road building material.
It was decided to check the received material in the Dutch province of Frisland, having paved a 1-kilometer path connecting the provincial capital of Leeuwarden and the town of Stins.
The main component of the paper is cellulose, which is also used for many other industrial purposes. That it goes as the basis for a new asphalt. To obtain road construction material, toilet paper is first run through a recycling cycle, where it is filtered, cleaned and sterilized at very high temperatures. The result is a fluffy material or material in granules, which can be used for the production of asphalt.
In addition, the resulting material can be used for the production of bioplastics and other building materials. Most manufacturers of toilet paper in the Netherlands produce only high-quality product with a high content of cellulose, which, in turn, allows you to create a higher-quality building material after its processing. In the usual case, used paper, like other waste, is simply incinerated in special processing plants.
Using such recycled paper is an efficient business model, they say at CirTec.
“As part of the processing, you get rid of all the excess and you get a high-value product that can be sold,” said Cirline Managing Director Carline Lahai in an interview with the BBC.
The company says it cleans about 400 kilograms of pulp daily. Some of this pulp is exported to England, where it is used as one of the materials for the production of biocomposites. The remaining pulp is used for the production of other products or further processing.
The main difficulty now is to increase the scale of production, but the company is optimistic about this and say they are negotiating with other potential buyers to bring production to a new level.
Of course, in the matter of recycling used toilet paper and the further use of the product obtained on its basis there may be some fraction of the “fu” factor, but it seems that the local residents do not pay attention to it at all.
“Of course, at first glance it may seem strange that the road was created on the basis of toilet paper. However, people note that when driving on it, it feels like a completely ordinary asphalt surface, ”- commented the governor of the province of Friesland, Michael Schier.
The article is based on materials .
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