Page 57 from: April 2015

57April 2015

I N S P I R A T I O N

English pilot Jeremy Rowsell is
no stranger to high altitudes or
long fl ights. But he is now look-
ing to mark a particularly spe-
cial date in his diary: the day he
fl ies an aircraft supported by
diesel fuel derived entirely from
waste plastics.
With numerous successful tests with
cars having propelled his On Wings of
Waste project into the public eye, Row-
sell is ready to embark on a 10 000-
mile adventure all the way from Sydney
to London later this year.
The six-day journey was initially
scheduled for October 2012. ‘We
have the plane, the clearances for the
route, the plan to get the fuel in place
– so now we are working hard on
acquiring sponsorship to make this
wonderful project happen,’ explains
Rowsell. Getting the formula right for
refi ning the fuel is also taking longer
than expected, he admits, and the
‘optimal weather window’ also has
to be taken into account.

Patented process
The recycled fuel needed for the fl ight
will be provided by plastics-to-diesel
specialist Cynar and its patented
pyrolysis process. Cynar will collect
the necessary mixed plastics at its
recycling facility in Ireland; it esti-

mates that around 5 tonnes of plas-
tic will be needed for conversion into
4000 litres of fuel to power the
Cessna 182 light aircraft.
The historic trip will include stops-off
at Darwin, Christmas Island, Sri
Lanka, Oman, Jordan and Malta
before touchdown in London. All
airports along the way will be sup-
plied with the special plastics-derived
biofuel, Rowsell points out.

Precious natural assets
The project is intended to shine a
light on Man’s dependency on fuel
and to show alternative materials
exist for sustaining our growing need
for transportation. ‘On Wings of
Waste represents a chance to fi nd an
economically viable way to protect
our most precious natural assets,’
says Rowsell. Unlike fuels for other
vehicles, the most common aviation
fuel is avgas which still contains lead
and thus releases toxic fumes into
the environment, he explains.
Rowsell was only 15 years of age
when he was introduced to the world
of aviation and has accumulated over
50 000 km of fl ying experience over
the Pacifi c. Besides experimenting
with aerobatics, he has volunteered
for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
www.ataltitude.com.au

These days, you can barely say
‘paper’ without saying Cheung
Yan. A woman small in stature
and with a face that exudes the
utmost concentration, her name
ranks not only at the top of the
recycling sector but also 24th
on the list of the richest people
on mainland China.
Back in 2006, she even became the
fi rst woman to top this prestigious
list, with Shanghai business analysts
estimating her fortune at US$ 3.4 bil-
lion that year.
Her wealth and reputation as a paper
industry entrepreneur have been
earned largely through her business
Nine Dragons Paper Holdings, which
she founded in 1995 with her hus-
band and brother. The family enter-
prise counts as China’s biggest paper
producer and is a major importer of
recovered paper.

Steep climb to the top
Yan’s story is as unique as it is mem-
orable, but it was a steep climb to the
top. She started her professional
career working in a textiles factory in
Guangdong. She later relocated to
Shenzhen to pursue a position at a
paper trading company, feeling the
magnetic pull of the region’s reputa-
tion as a fast-developing export hub.
On learning that her country was fac-
ing a serious scarcity of paper pack-

aging materials, Yan opened the
doors to her own paper trading com-
pany using all her savings (reputedly
US$ 4000). She also launched Amer-
ica Chung Nam when she lived in Los
Angeles; despite her ‘limited lan-
guage skills’, she stuck with her idea
and saw the business grow into the
largest US exporter of recovered
paper.
Today, Nine Dragons employs 17 000
people and has the capacity to pro-
duce 9 million tonnes of container-
board and packaging materials per
year. As founder and director, it is Yan
who makes all the strategic calls.

Chinese icon
Even when compared to other inter-
nationally-renowned ‘self-made’
women, her CV is impressive: with
more than US$ 5 billion to her name
this year, she beat both TV host
Oprah Winfrey and best-selling
author J. K. Rowling to the title of
‘wealthiest woman in the world’.
As for the future, Yan says Nine Drag-
ons will continue to focus on paper
and ‘won’t do anything else’. And
ideally, she wants it to remain a fam-
ily business. Having accomplished all
of this as a mother of two has made
Yan nothing short of an icon in China
– or as the media put it, ‘a symbol of
the country’s industrial revolution’.
www.ndpaper.com

Cheung Yan:
ruling the paper empire

Jeremy Rowsell:
recycling potential fl ies sky-high

RI-3 Game changers.indd 57 30-03-15 10:01