Recycling plans on trash-heap for Kiwi inventor
Peter Lewis thought he had a revolutionary recycling invention that would change the world – now he’s resigned to heading back to the drawing board.
That invention, The Blocker, would convert any category of unsorted and unwashed plastic into building blocks with better insulation properties than concrete, and stronger than brick.
‘‘There is nothing that come close to it. Nothing’’.
Now Lewis is detailing claims he was ousted from ByFusion, the company formed to sell his invention to the world and has a lawyer’s letter saying he’s not entitled to the 26 per cent of the company he thought he owned.
When he tried to re-claim the company, he was issued with a cease and desist notice from an attorney saying he had no rights, can and was also stymied by the American paper-based system, which required him to find the courthouse where the company’s details were lodged.
ByFusion spokesperson Heidi Kujawa rejected Lewis’ claims, saying he was removed as director of the New Zealand entity after he chose not to accept a new role. Documents sighted by the Sunday Star-Times suggest Lewis was fired from both companies, and issued a trespass notice from the Dunedin factory.
Left without shares, intellectual property, and no financial means, Lewis says he faced years of litigation and walked away.
He has planned a reengineered machine he says is faster, cheaper, more efficient and would not infringe on the current patent. ‘‘I had a Model T Ford and I now I have something like an e-bike.’’