Nick Perkins Photo
Bobby Chambers collects plastics along the New Haven Harbor
”We’re trying to pick up the area and make it look nicer,” said Bobby Chambers, as he organized a clean-up Saturday on Long Wharf by New Haven Harbor .
Cleanliness was not Chambers’ only goal during the beach cleanup. He was also working on a method of recycling plastics into new products.
Chamber, an-ex aerospace engineer focused on polymers, is currently seeking a PhD in polymer science while working as a facilitator at the Make Haven makers’ space on Chapel Street.
Chambers separates trash into black bags and plastics into white bags
Make Haven uses a plastic shredder, which breaks plastics down into smaller granulate that can be molded into other new products.
Chambers said this new method could allow Make Haven to “potentially make whatever we want from plastic.” Chambers said that this new method could make recycling more efficient, and that “less plastics making their way into a landfill would be the goal.”
Alexa Jakiela, Bobby Chambers, and Rachel Handler.
A small group Saturday helped Chambers with his clean-up initiative, including his friend Alexa Jakiela, who is a teacher in Westerly, R.I.
Alexa Jakiela sorts plastics and trash on the beach.
Jakiela said it was “great to help in the early stages with something that will benefit the environment and benefit my friend.”
After two hours of work, Chambers and the other volunteers managed to fill eight bags — four full of plastics and four full of trash. Chambers said that his goal for the first project using the collected plastic with the plastic shredder would be to make a cutting board.
Thank you to the volunteers cleaning up Long Wharf and taking pride in New Haven's appearance.
I am concerned about recycled plastics still creating micro plastics that end up in our water and food, and eventually our bodies. Is Bobby Chambers considering working on reducing plastics further contamination in our environment in its micro form? If he can figure out how to prevent and remove plastics components and its byproducts and waste from contaminating our planet, he should win the Nobel Prize.