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It's been two years in the making, but an innovative, student-led initiative at Rutland Secondary School is set to begin production. 'Operation Take Two', takes the idea of recycling and turns it into immediate action. Instead of tossing plastics into blue bins and hoping for the best, the project has created a work-space where plastic is re-purposed right on site.
The students happened on a program that was started in the Netherlands called Precious Plastics. The open source business model has helped organizations start turning problem plastic into production all over the world.
Proponents of the RSS plan, including student Kineisha Charles have been making presentations to funding agencies from the Rotary Club to the Dragons Den, and now they're in a position to begin production. "Take Two is an initiative that's really seeking to take on this global issue of plastic waste," said Charles. "We have our opening tomorrow evening on Tuesday, June 4. So that's going to be a sort of soft launch for us. After that, we're going to be able to start production in our workspace."
The metal building which was made possible by Okanagan-based based company BigSteelBox.
BigSteelBox Spokesperson Brian Hawkins said the project was too good not to support. I think it's tackling a real, felt problem in the world today," said Hawkins. "This issue of how we deal with waste is only going to get more significant over time." He said solving these problems is going to take exactly the kind of initiative, these students are demonstrating. "I think it will be creativity and entrepreneurial ideas like this that solve that in the long term," added Hawkins.
Inside the building, there is a sorting area, a plastic grinder and an oven where the new products will take shape in moulds.
Charles will be graduating this year, so the next challenge will be making sure there is enough student involvement to keep the project going.
"We're really recruiting younger students in our school to continue this project," said Charles.
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