Luxus competition encourages ‘green’ talent

Louth-based technical plastics recycler and compounder, Luxus, has partnered with the University of Lincoln’s School of Engineering for its ‘Design4Recycling’ competition, which involves creating a concept for a recycling bin to help the plastics and waste industries improve recycling rates.

Peter Atterby, Managing Director at Luxus, said: “We believe that it’s important for industry and universities to work closely together, giving students ‘real world’ design problems to solve; encouraging them to think sustainably and at the same time creating stronger relationships.

“Engineering however, is facing a technical workforce shortage that’s forecast for many years to come, so we wanted to help prevent talent haemorrhaging from Lincolnshire. With this in mind we approached the University of Lincoln which happens to have the UK’s first new School of Engineering in 20 years.

“As it’s our intention to work closely with local educational institutions that train the best and brightest future engineers to get them interested in the issues impacting on our plastics industry.”

The students will be asked to create concepts for a recycling bin to help the plastics and waste industries improve recycling rates. They will need to consider waste needs for domestic use by tapping into the emerging kitchen waste collection market for example and a second bin design that would support away from home recycling initiatives - such as waste collections for offices, schools, cafes, leisure centres and public buildings.

Luxus says it wants students to think sustainably at the beginning of their design projects, by considering the materials they use; safety; ergonomics; ease of deconstruction at ‘end of life’ while also anticipating the need for greater separation of waste as we will inevitably recycle increasingly diverse waste streams in the future.

Jonathan Lawrence, Professor of Laser Materials Processing at the University of Lincoln, said: “We’re really pleased to collaborate with Luxus on this project, particularly since it poses a true industry issue to challenge our students.

“As we believe that our engineering degrees create ‘industry ready’ graduates - our approach essentially cuts down on the amount of graduate training that an employer would need to provide. Luxus’ competition fits this purpose perfectly, giving our students tremendous breadth and dept of knowledge together with our other expert industry collaborators.”

The students’ designs will be judged in the summer term and the winner will receive a laptop from Luxus to help support their studies in the future.