The University of Botswana (UB) in collaboration with local company Sky Scene recently unveiled rubber pavers made from recycled tyres in Gaborone.
More Rubber Paver Research
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony, David Norris, UB Vice Chancellor, said he is very delighted that the partnership has led to finding solutions to real problems faced by the communities, industries and government.
“The objective of the waste tyres recycling project is to reduce the accumulation of waste tyres by turning them into multiple useful products with profits,” said Norris.
The role of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UB in this project is to conduct research and develop new machines and technologies for production from recycled tyre raw material. On the other hand, Sky Scene will produce some of the commonly used products such as rubber pavers, rubber tiles, and playground pavers.
An experimental section has been constructed using new rubber pavers on UB campus to serve as a demonstration site as well as to investigate some of the performance properties in real operating conditions.
After the research is finalised and concluded, they will need support from financial institutes and investment promoters for procurement for machines and productions, said Thapelo Mokgweetsi, Managing Director of Sky Scene.
Comment: This appears to be a perfect example of re-inventing the wheel. The manufacture of rubber pavers is a tried and tested process used around the world. In fact, Oscar Filen’s TyreX Global is based in South Africa. One of the biggest challenges that the rubber recycling sector faces is the multiple duplicate studies in almost every area of recycling – millions of Dollars must be wasted every year replicating products that have already been developed and are available to the market. How many times must the industry create a new rubber paver?
Source:Xinhau Net