00:00Have you heard the term microfactories?
00:05Researchers are testing out a new concept that could create a more sustainable process
00:10for recycling plastics.
00:12The potential solution is microfactories.
00:15And in Arizona, city leaders in Phoenix and scientists at Arizona State University are
00:20teaming up to explore how this type of facility could impact the industry, particularly when
00:26it comes to uniquely shaped products that the public doesn't typically recycle, like
00:31a child's old car booster seat or broken toys.
00:35Joining us now to discuss is Alicia Marce, Senior Director at Arizona State University.
00:40Alicia, welcome on.
00:43Thank you for having me.
00:44So what exactly is a microfactory?
00:48That's a great question.
00:49And our efforts are a multi-stakeholder, multi-partnership project where we are looking at
00:56transforming the entire system.
00:58And so we're working with the city of Phoenix, as well as Goodwill of Central and Northern
01:02Arizona and a community economic development organization to transform the value chain
01:08and how we collect, process and convert recycled plastics into new products.
01:13And so we, in this microfactory, are the first to combine material recovery with remanufacturing
01:20and create a closed loop system here in our region.
01:24So when it comes to recycling these plastics, how much actually gets recycled?
01:29Currently, less than 9% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled.
01:34Wow.
01:35That is far lower than I would have thought, than I think a lot of our viewers would have
01:38thought.
01:39How does that compare to other recycling rates for items like paper and glass?
01:47Glass is much higher, plastic.
01:50There are nuances, right, because every region recycles and has different recycling options
01:54available.
01:55And our goal is to localize, create a hyperlocal system for material recovery.
02:01We're starting with plastics and we're going to actually look at additional materials.
02:06But how do we create a hub and spoke model where materials can actually be recovered
02:11and remanufactured and keep the jobs local?
02:14So instead of shipping the materials overseas and the jobs overseas, how do we keep them
02:19local and create the opportunities here in our region?
02:22Why do you think there is a disparity?
02:25Oh, that's a great question.
02:28Quite complex, if you will.
02:29But I think part of it is, you know, how do we rethink consumer education and that it's
02:34not actually waste material?
02:36Plastic is actually a very valuable, pretty amazing material.
02:40So we actually collect more.
02:43How do we get it, keep it in the system longer?
02:45That's the goal of circular economy to extend the life cycle of the product.
02:49And something that we talk a lot about through our hubs is how do we bring what's considered
02:54back of house in terms of this type of processing front of house so people can actually see
02:59their recycled materials going in one end and then products coming out the other.
03:03So they're able to see the value of changing their behavior locally.
03:07So with these micro factories, I know we brought up the example of perhaps a child's car booster
03:13seat.
03:14What other types of items would you see getting recycled that would typically just end up
03:17in a landfill somewhere?
03:19Yep.
03:20So we're starting with, if you look at the bottom of a lot of your plastic goods, number
03:23twos and number fives.
03:25So the rigid plastics, cell phone cases like the multitude of materials and products are
03:30actually endless.
03:33Part of the challenge will be and what we've started discovering with Goodwill is they're
03:36not all labeled.
03:37Right.
03:38So a lot of the products that we're recycling don't have the triangle at the bottom.
03:41So we've invested in some technologies to sort and grade appropriately to understand
03:46the material property so we can increase the collections and then drive the consumer education
03:52to increase those collections by materials and products.
03:55Alicia Marce, thank you.
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