Zakynthos Informer Zakynthos Informer
Related Articles
On a recent post written by Voula Soufi she talks about how getting the bottle caps to where they need to go was a great effort. It was of late that we learnt that the bottle caps that people had been collecting were not able to get off the Island and therefore some had thought of not collecting them anymore.
It is a shame as the efforts of the volunteers were not only to help the environment by recycling plastic but also it was an initiative to get a wheel chair in return for the amount clollected. After coming into contact with the Volunteer Group of Zakynthos, Voula decided to get in contact witht the organisation that gives out the wheelchairs once a tone or so of plastic bottles is collected. This is her post:-
We are continuing to collect bottle caps !!!
Report of the first shipment:
The lids we collected on June 22-23 in Zakynthos weighing 424,100 kilos. Almost half a ton !!!
Keep collecting your plastic bottle tops, tell friends with businesses, hotels, restaurants, taverns, bars etc etc, to collect themat the end of their day’s business. We who do not have a business, let everyone gather their own at home. By community one could also urge them to collect in specific places.
And at the end of the season to make a call again for a 2nd mission, aiming to reach 1 ton along with the previous caps, and to be able to give a wheelchair to someone who needs it! ❤
– – –
Many told me that they thought their collection had stopped and threw them away. Their promotion for recycling from our island had virtually stopped. Fortunately, the collection continued to be made by many, who just did not know where to go.
I thank Dionysis Nikolopoulos from the Volunteer Group of Zakynthos who hastened to recommend me to contact Vivi Vangali, president of the association, Association for the Prevention of Traffic Accidents & Support for the Disabled, Love for Life.
We thank the children and parents of the 1st Elementary School, the 4th Elementary School and the Elementary School of Lithakia who collected so many caps and brought them to Metaforiki on the day we agreed with the help of the management and the parents’ association. If there is another school that gave a large volume of caps, thank you very much !! And of course we thank all those who brought your own lids from your home or business, and so all of the above together reached almost half a ton! Finally, we thank the Transport Company of Tranakas in Ampelokipi, which took care of their transportation to Athens for free for this purpose, and the employees who helped to transport all this material! Together we can and do work better – as I read in the community of Keri!
* We continue to collect caps !!!
So, my friends we ARE still collecting plastic bottle caps!!! If you would like to make it known that your area or business is collecting please do not hesitate to inform us where others can drop off their bottle caps.
How do plastic lids turn into wheelchairs?
Suspicion is now a feature of our times and how it could not be seeing what is happening around us. Many times, we hear or read in reports: “But is this true with plastic caps? Are wheelchairs really given? »,« But what do the caps do? Didn’t this action stop? “,” How much do they “take” out of the plastic lids? for this. The action which concerns the plastic lids, their transport to the recycling factory in order to buy a wheelchair which we donate to our fellow human beings who live on a wheelchair, either from a car accident or from various diseases as well as the coverage The needs of our state hospitals in wheelchairs are completely true. At least as far as the “LOVE FOR LIFE” association is concerned.
When quantities of plastic lids are collected outside Attica, anywhere in our country, then a transport company of each region by arrangement transports them free of charge to a warehouse in Athens and immediately the recycling truck collects them.
The process is long and quite difficult since all this action is purely based on volunteering and if we take into account the current situation we would say that it is extremely difficult now so we ask for your help and understanding since it is vital to keep picking up the plastic lids so we can continue this action.
The benefits of this action are many and important. Both we and our children become aware of recycling, both in plastic lids and in other objects, with the result that on the one hand we protect the environment and on the other hand we offer a wheelchair wherever we are asked for the price of recyclable plastic lids.
For the price of plastic lids we can offer a simple type wheelchair, a hospital wheelchair, the special type have a high cost and we follow another procedure which we will not mention here now.
How do plastic lids turn into wheelchairs?
After the plastic caps are collected and delivered to the recycling factory, they are weighed there and after they tell us the balance sheet, the association is obliged to cut an invoice for recycling and after the invoice is sent, they deposit their price in the association’s account.
Let us emphasize here that in every delivery of plastic lids, recycling keeps 10% of their weight as waste due to various factors such as cartons, pallets, the fact that there may be other items in the bags such as tin lids, spoons, forks etc.
So:
1 kg lids = 0.20 cents
1 ton of caps = 200.00 euros
200.00 euros = a simple wheelchair One ton of lids corresponds to 80-90 garden bags.
What happens to plastic lids when they end up in the recycling plant?
A reasonable question we receive almost daily.
When the plastic caps end up in the recycling plant and after being weighed and priced, they are cleared of other items that may be between them before they enter the machines because if another non-plastic item is inserted there is a high risk of damaging the machine that processes them. This is why we take great care that the bags contain only plastic lids and no other items.
When they are cleaned then they are put in special machines and pulverized, the pulverized plastic is put in another machine and becomes pulp and this pulp is put in special molds and turned into plastic crates that we usually use to transport fruit and vegetables.
In general, this is the process of recycling plastic lids and turning them into wheelchairs.
We would say that as simple as it sounds, it is by no means an easy process since in order for all this to work properly, many people will have to work voluntarily at the same time.
Some more relaxed, some hard and painful, some to transport them from the various points gathered in the recycling plant with all that entails. All these people must work together selflessly, patiently, persistently, with real love for the benefits of this action, offering valuable time from their work, from their family, from their rest, from their daily life, for the benefit of our fellow human beings who are in need and deserve a better quality of life.
You should also know a few things about transporting plastic caps when you bring them to the drop off points.
Try not to overfill the bags, especially when they are garden bags because they are difficult to carry due to their heavy weight, also try to get strong bags so that the lids do not tear the bags and spill out because it is painful and time consuming to put them back in another bag and at the same time trying to keep them as clean as possible.
A perfect example on how to collect your plastic lids is in the photo
