Plastic recycling business in Ethiopia

Ethiopia announced on Monday that it was banning the importation of plastic bags as part of the country's green growth initiatives. It is good but I think the best solution is having plastic recycling industries because (1) more jobs (2) greener environment (3) technological experience (4) related research and innovation. The discussion below takes a look at possibility of plastic recycling business in Ethiopia.

1. Product Description: This project idea is about reclaiming of thermoplastic materials to their original state of polyprelene, polurethine, polystsernene or polyvinyl chloride granules and powder. This reclaiming of waste plastic materials to their original state enables, with proportionate compounding of additives and filters, the availability of locally of the raw material used in the manufacture of PVC floor tiles, ball point pen cases, switch boxes, crates, cups an extruded pipes, sewerage PVC pipes and plastic twines or ropes.

2. Market Potential: The demand for products which are from reprocessed waste plastic materials has been increasing at a faster rate during the last 10-15 years. This is particularly true for products such as plastic creates, plastic cups and plates, extruded pipes, PVC floor tiles, plastic ropes. If discarded plastic products

are reclaimed and restored to their original state, the restored material could be used to produce the above products here at home. In 1997, the projected demand for PVC and PV granules was about 300 tons; and this was expected to increase to about 400 tons increase to about 400 tons in 2008.

This projected demand could be sufficient to absorb the production of a small scale plastic waste reclaiming plant.

3. Source of raw Material: Plastic wastes to be collected from various sources.

4. Process and Technology: The main processing stages are granulation, washing, drying, extrusion and palletizing and packing. The main machinery required include granulator, screw conveyor, washing equipment, two stage dryer, storage tank, extruding/ palletizing machine.

5. Estimated Investment: For a plant that can produce about 300 tons of reclaimed plastic waste, the estimated investment will be:

- Building/ shade-       600,000

- Machinery            1,200,000

-W. capital                100,000

                              1,900,000

6. Benefits: Improves the environment by removing plastic waste from the ground, saves foreign exchange, and facilitates the development of other industries whose input is reclaimed plastic waste, brings in financial resources.