PLASTIC FANTASTIC Engineers at the University of N.S.W have come up with a way to reuse plastic waste to produce steel.

'In Australia, every year over 1,000,000 tonnes of plastic is put into landfill. 'Only 10% of total waste plastic is ever recycled.

University of N.S.W engineers have come up with a process to combine plastic waste, which would normally be put into landfill, and combined it with coal to form carbon, for the steel making process, using a furnace with temperatures of 1600 deg C. The carbon is combined with other traditional products and melted in a blast furnace to produce steel.

Research has shown that plastics burn cleaner than coal, thus providing a cleaner source of energy, which is ever important to Greenhouse gas emissions crisis the earth is facing.

On 9th August 2005, the University of N.S.W won the prestigious Australian Museum's 'Eureka Science Award' for scientific research.

About the author: Tobi Nagy is a small business develoment consultant and a specialist on developing sustainable systems. His website can be found at http://www.sustainable-development.net