ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the present world of competition we are grateful and thankful to the

supreme power the Almighty God in the guidance we have received in order to
complete the report on the right path. Without his grace, this project could not
become a reality.

We would also like to expand our gratitude to our parents and colleague,
whom we are greatly indebted for all the help we have received. We are feeling
oblige in taking this opportunity to sincerely thanks Ts Dr Judith Gisip for the
generous guidance and all the feedback we have received in writing this report.
We have no valuable words to express our thanks but our heart is full of the
favors received from every person.
1.1 INTRODUCTION

Derived from materials found in nature, such as oil, coil, minerals, natural gas and
plants, plastic is produced. The plasticity is the general property of all materials which can
deform irreversibly without breaking. Besides having the properties of being malleable,
plastic can be converted into solid objects too. Flame retardants, phthalates, bisphenols and
other harmful chemicals in plastic which produced their flexibility or rigidity are oily poisons
that stick to petroleum-based objects and repel water. This toxic chemicals that leach out of
plastics lead to the accumulation on other plastics. Plastic is widely used in packaging, boxes,
switches and others. Despite the numerous advantages and uses of plastic such as the
production cost is low, lightweight and can be easily molded into various shapes, but it has
many shortfalls and its detrimental effect are causing huge concern in order to save not only
the earth, but ourselves. In order to naturally decompose plastics it will take up from 400 to
1000 years and few types of plastic are non-degradable as well. Statistic revealed that around
100 million tons to more than 300 million tons plastic is manufactured globally each year.
Plastic wasn’t invented to be thrown away. Having properties of being strong and flexible,
plastic meant to last. Due to this fact, this has caused so many huge detrimental effect to the
earth especially to the point where the landfill and ocean starts to be piled with plastic. So
why don’t we just recycle all the plastic produced?

Research showed that out of 100 million tons to more than 300 million tons plastic is
manufactured globally each year, only 5% to 9% is being recycled effectively. In Indonesia
alone, a total of 1 million tons of plastics end up in the water every year. The problem
globally is so disastrous that the Ellen McAthur Foundation estimates if no action is taken by
2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Why is there is only a small-scale
plastic being recycled? By observing and understanding the manufacturing process we can
gain some of the answers. In order to make the products that we are used to, plastic resins are
melting by using different processes. For instance, ready-made meal trays are made with one
type of plastic by injection molding whereas water bottles are made with another type of
plastic by blow molding.
 Depending on the manufacturing process, different plastics have different melting
points. In sequence to give the plastic specific characteristics, chemical additives is
introduced. An additive can make a plastic more flexible, for instance, or, it can make it more
rigid. For desired effect, dyes are also added. Due to that fact, there are thousands of
variations of plastics where not all types can be recycled. Even when the plastic that can be
recycled is recycled, the quality degrades every time it is reheated for melting to make a new
product. Further exasperating the problem are products containing two types of plastic,
rendering them either even more difficult to recycle or perhaps entirely useless for recycling.
For that reason plastic has limited value as a recycled material due to its loss in quality, it is
not long before it reaches its end of life and spends eternity as fish food or in landfill.

Owing to the fact that plastic are mostly unrecyclable, P-Block is being introduced. P-
Block is a construction-grade building material made entirely from recycled and often
unrecyclable plastic waste. When recycled, plastic especially, is actually used up much less
energy to intensive to produce steel or cement. Biochemist Anthony L. Andrady argues that
“the benefits provided by plastics justify the 4 percent fossil fuel raw materials and another 3
percent to 4 percent energy resources devoted to manufacturing it. In building applications,
plastics save more energy than they use.” Besides that the fact that P-Block helps to reduce
the detrimental plastic problem, it is an advantage to the construction world due to the fact it
serve multipurpose use since it can act as sound walls, privacy fencing, retaining wall and
more.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Plastics have become a severe transboundary threat to natural ecosystems and human
health, with studies predicting a twofold increase in the number of plastic debris (including
micro and nano-sized plastics) by 2030.  According to Worm (2015), the accumulation of
plastic waste in the environment has become increasingly hazardous. In the present time, the
world is producing more than 380 million tonnes of plastic every year, which mostly end up
as pollutants, entering oceans and the natural environment. Does all the plastic waste ends up
in the ocean? Of course not, most of it ends up in landfills where it is estimated that the share
of global plastic waste that enters the ocean is around 3%. According to the statistic, 9 billion
plus of plastic is produced since 1950s with 8 million tonnes of plastic polluting the ocean
every year. Despite the statistic, there is less than 9% of optimistic estimate of plastic
recycled per year. It is expected that by the year 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will
outnumbered the amount of fish.

Ranked 8th among the top ten countries with mismanaged plastic waste in the world,
Malaysia has an environmental problems related to plastic waste which has become a major
problem. Having 1,300 plastic manufacturers, Malaysia is one of the global player in the
plastic industry. Only in the year of 2016, Malaysia has exported close to the amount of
RM30 billion which saw a 2.26 million metric tonnes of resin utilised to produce plastics. A
study estimated that Malaysia had produced 0.94 million tons of mismanaged plastic wastes,
of which 0.14 to 0.37 million tons may have been washed into the oceans. Some studies have
also highlighted the potential health effects of single-use plastics on human and animals.
Besides that, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) had estimated USD13 billion
impact of marine plastic pollution to the Asia Pacific region. Billions of plastic have been
produced in last decade but there is a whopping of 91% plastic isn’t being recycled.
 With plastic problems that fills up the landfill and ocean due to the fact that large
amount of plastic is unrecyclable, the ideas of incorporating plastic into the construction
world emerge. P-block, a construction-grade building material made entirely from recycled
and often unrecyclable plastic waste is introduced due to the combined fact between
unrecyclable plastic and the properties of concrete blocks that often experience cracking,
leaking, separating, degradation of block materials and comparing to concrete blocks or
bricks, they often crumbles easily compare to P-Block.

Owing to the fact mentioned above, P-Block is expected to provide solutions to the
problems faced not only in Malaysia, but globally. The aim of the innovation is to help
reduce plastic by recycling, protect the environment by enabling the recycling industry to
recycle the unrecyclable and since plastic is flexible, strong and built to last, it offers better
option compare to concrete block.
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY