PAST Foundation & Ohio State University present

The Details

Note from the Director

The students of the 2010 Advanced Materials program will have the opportunity to explore the waste habits of modern societies through Garbology and to draw on concepts from materials science engineering in order to create solutions for reducing the waste stream with the ultimate goal of zero landfill.  Through hands-on activities, laboratory experiences and lectures, students will explore the properties, characteristics, and uses of specific materials in order to develop and engineer a plan for making the materials more recyclable.  Each day will focus on specific materials with activities designed to provide a good introduction to advanced materials.

As we begin the week, I invite you all to virtually join us on our program. Everyday the students will be uploading their daily blogs so they can share with you their week as young engineers!

Andrew Bruening, Director Advanced Materials

The Challenge

We are a disposable society. We throw everything in the garbage. Landfills are reaching maximum capacity yet we continue to generate more waste. In the early 1970’s archaeologist Dr. William Rathje examined landfill content to determine what Americans were throwing away and found paper was the most abundant component of modern landfills. Forty years later more plastic than paper is entering landfills. A recent study in California estimated that over 1 billion plastic bottles end up in landfills each year – that’s more than 3 million bottles per day. Managing plastic waste is a global problem. Thus as we are depleting our natural resources and stuffing landfills to capacity we are creating an environmental, ecological, and economic dilemma that can only be solved through engineering.

The Solution

If these plastic bottles were recycled they could be converted into more than 74 million square ft of carpet, 74 million extra large T-shirts, or 16 million sweatshirts just to name a few. These are just a few sustainable solutions to this issue. Through Garbology and materials science engineering students explore the role and recycle potential of polymers in reaching a goal of zero landfill. Using recycled plastic bottles students will use a variety of analytical laboratory equipment to identify the different polymers used in each type of bottle specifically, focusing on two forms thermoset plastics and thermoplastics. As students explore sustainable solutions to dealing with the increasing amount of plastics they will design and create an object such as a bench, table or desk from ground plastic chips from plastic they collect at their school.

The Program

Field Journal

Advanced Materials: Day 1

Advanced Materials: Day 2

Advanced Materials: Day 3

Advanced Materials: Day 4

Partners