"Short question" about the HMS Recyclo: TU Dresden's recycling raft is ready to cast off

"Basically, it's a pressed yellow bag," Felix Dobritz says of the research raft, which has been moored in Neustadt harbor since May 3 after a successful maiden voyage. On June 7, the HMS Recyclo will set off on its first research voyage across the Elbe to Magdeburg to collect valuable data on the state of the river.

Felix Dobritz and Dr. Roman Maletz from the Institute of Waste and Recycling Management at TU Dresden have been working on the raft for almost three years. They want to show that plastic waste in particular is not as bad as its reputation, but can be processed in many ways if there are buyers: For example, into a frame for a research raft. In addition to ordinary packaging waste, which was pressed into the desired shape in a special process, there are also hard plastic drums from a car repair shop for the necessary buoyancy and other reused materials, such as old climbing ropes.