PROJECT PROFILE
Motivation.
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Nurdles are tiny pre-production resin pellets, (less than 5mm in diameter) that are used as the building blocks of all plastic products in the world. These nurdles come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and polymers and are transported across the world by containers on ships. Each container carries nearly 1 billion nurdles, and each ship carries multiple containers.
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It is estimated that around 9.1 trillion nurdles are lost in cargo spills every year. These nurdles are lost to the oceans and whilst some are consumed by the wildlife in the oceans, large quantities are washed up on the shorelines of countries all over the world, from Sri Lanka and South Africa to Sweden and the UK. The consequences of these spills not only ruin the ecosystems they end up in, but can also lead to impacts on human health. As such, it is vital to clean these spills as quickly as possible once they occur to reduce the impact on the environment and local wildlife.
The Brief.
Due to the environmental impact of nurdles on the shorelines, the aim of this project is to develop designs for new shoreline cleanup equipment for the collection of nurdle pollution with minimal energy requirements and minimal environmental impact.
Designing efficient and practical equipment has its own list of requirements, but for this project, we will choose to design with a specific focus on:
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Effectiveness
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Reliability
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Transportability
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Low Environmental Impact
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Easy to manufacture
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Our objectives for the project are as follows:
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Highlight the issues caused by nurdle spill incidents​
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Research and evaluate current methods of response and technologies to deal with nurdle spill incidents
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Identify a post-collection outlet for the collected nurdles
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With specific objectives for the equipment:
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Effectively recover nurdles by maximising nurdles collected over energy use and time taken​
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Improve the ergonomics of the current design to reduce injury and increase user efficiency​
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Minimal environmental impact on the local ecosystem and global environment​