Plastic Rivers

Plastic Archives

Karan Sunthpaul

BArch Hons 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Claudia Morgado
Unit Tutor: Ruby Mungoshi
Unit Assistant: Azraa Gabru

UNIT 13^︎︎︎
Second Nature | Shared Futures

Interest in microplastics’ toxic effects became a study into subverting the invasive bodies found at the V-Section of Umlazi River. This site is one of the most plastic-polluting rivers in South Africa.

Interest in plastic-waste showed the site to have three invasive bodies – the plastic waste and water-hyacinths in the river, and the informal settlement on the riverbank. Thus, “Plastic Rivers” looks at the intersection between these bodies.

Plastic waste and water-hyacinths were catalogued, discovering what value could be extracted from them. Noting that informal settlements are subject to fire and flood led to experiments in superimposing the invasive bodies to create bricks made from plastic waste and hyacinth-biochar to subvert their relationships.

Melted plastic and hyacinth-biochar combined the hyacinths’ tensile properties with plastic’s thermal qualities to create strong bricks that stay warm in the cold and vice versa as an alternative to the poor thermal properties of the corrugated iron used in informal settlements.

Testing the bricks in fire and water compared their flood and fire-resistance with corrugated iron. Finally, a speculative design for a processing plant to make these bricks is located on site for local inhabitants to manage the invasive bodies, thus creating a new intersection between these bodies.

Keywords:
Plastic, Plastic Waste, Microplastics, Recycle, Recycling, Composite Material, Biochar

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