Locally Produced Drip Irrigation Tubing from Recycled Waste

Joseph Parse of Synovision Solutions in the U.S. will develop equipment to convert waste plastic shopping bags into drip irrigation tubing suitable for use by women smallholder farmers in developing countries. In arid regions where water is in short supply, carrying or pumping water for irrigation on smallholder farms is time- consuming and inefficient. These regions tend to also have lots of consumer waste, including plastic shopping bags. He will refine and evaluate a low-tech manually powered heat-welding system, which could be locally produced, for converting plastic bags into large quantities of irrigation tubing, and design and develop associated materials for harvesting water from available reservoirs.