If this is tax dollars(of any kind) then save your breath and just go ahead and give it to Commonwealth and dan Mclaren. We know its all going there any way. what b.s.

Okay now, with this news, how about the little girl who invented the recycled plastics asphalt idea? Are they (UNBC) going to do some research and development on that? If it proves to be feasible, it is something that could put this town one the map and potentially change the way things are done all over the world. I really wonder if some pressure could be put on the city to give it a try like they said they would and then didn't, a couple of years ago? What's the harm in trying it? If it works, it would be good. If it doesn't, at least we would know for sure and possibly something else could develop out of it.

re; the asphalt idea. it doesn't work

Is CFDC involved with this as well? It is their mandate to foster entrepreneurship.

One of the keys to the follow up of ideas developed through an ideas generation process is to determine whether the idea is viable. Has anyone done this before? If yes, is the idea a variant of existing processes which is different enough to warrant it to be a legitimate alternative, especially an improvement? If so, what has to be done to be able to bring it to market? Is it unique enough to allow it to be patented? Who will fund it? And so on …..

We used to have a presence of a NRC funded individual in PG who would assist with the literature search required in the early stages of testing an idea, to find whether it has been done before or, even more importantly, whether there is current work going with which an individual might partner to go to find the viability of the idea both from a technical and marketing point of view. I am not sure whether such an individual/position is still funded in PG.

I am not exactly sure what the details of the girl’s idea were. The idea of waste plastic products being introduced into bituminous asphalt as a binder additive is not a new idea at all. All one has to do is put a few key words into a search engine and one can get a good start in the “literature search”.

The other idea making the rounds has been the introduction to wood waste as an aggregate into concrete, specifically concrete blocks. That too is not a new idea. In fact, the last time I looked into that, it is several generations old. That does not mean one could not set up a local company or perhaps more reasonably in Edmonton/Calgary and/or Vancouver to manufacture and sell such a block within the typical shipping distances of such relatively heavy products. However, there is nothing new about it. It is more a matter of convincing existing suppliers of cementitious blocks to include such a product in the mix of their offerings.

A few links to show that this is nothing all that new.

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Recycling/Waste-Plastic-Bituminous-RoadsApr02.htm The article is from 2002. Notice that one of the referenced reports is dated 1993 - "Recycled Plastic Finds Home in Asphalt Binder", Journal, Roads and Bridges, March 1993

http://www.evolucion.cl/revista/RS5.pdf A Spanish language publication from Chile has an article on recycled plastic used in asphalt at the beginning of the publication. Look on page 7 to see the following references:

1. Robin L Schroeder, “The Use of Recycled Materials in Highway Construction”, Journal, Public Roads, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1994 )

2. Amjad Khan, Gangadhar, Murali Mohan and Vinay Raykar, “Effective Utilisation of Waste Plastics in Asphalting of Roads”. Project Report prepared under the guidance of R. Suresh and H. Kumar, Dept. of Chemical Engg., R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, 1999.

3. Larry Flynn, “Recycled Plastic Finds Home in Asphalt Binder”, Journal, Roads and Bridges, March 1993

4. Zoorob S.E. and Suparma, L.B., “Laboratory Design and Investigation of Proportion of Bituminous Composite Containing Waste Recycled Plastics Aggregate Replacement (Plastiphalt), CIB Symposiumon Construction and Environment Theory into Practice, Sao Paulo, Brazil (November, 2000)

5. Zoorob, S.E., “Laboratory Design and Performance of Improved Bituminous Composites Utilising Plastics Packaging Waste”, Conference on Technology Watch and Innovation in Construction Industry, Belgium, Building Research Institute, Brussels, Belgium (April, 2000)

6. Research Work at the Centre for Transportation Engineering, Bangalore University during the year 2000 - 2001 and the Seminar Report on “Study of the Effect of Plastic Modifier on Bituminous Mix Properties” by V.S. Punith, II Semester, M.E. (Civil) Highway Engg., Dept. of Civil Engineering, Bangalore University (March, 2001).

The idea is nice, but who will be deciding on giving the money to projects and people?
One needs a fair system to accept and rank the proposals based on merit and not connections and friendships.

And people in UNBC and universities in Canada have already access to numerous federal and government research grants and I doubt that UNBC is the best place to start the "culture of entrepreneurship" as long as the management in UNBC is not capable of maintaining a fair system to rank the performance of its faculty members (like other universities) and award merit based on performance to motivate hard work.

Come up with some funding for teaching ABC of management to people in management positions in PG.