In 2013 Dave Hakkens, a young guy from the Netherlands started this small movement called “Precious Plastic”. His idea is to boost plastic recycling around the world by making it accessible to everyone. Changing the idea that plastic recycling is only for big companies or people that counts on large amounts of money.
His project has grown and changed over the years to become nowadays a worldwide movement with what they like to call an “Army” fighting plastic waste. On their website you can find blueprint, tutorials, and all kinds of files and information, for free, to start your own project.
The first step is to build the shredder machine, to transform plastic waste into small flakes. These flakes are the ones later used to make new products. Here is the tutorial:
Step two: building the extrusion machine. Here is where you transform those flakes into a fluid filament of plastic. This material can be used for the input of a 3d printer machine.
If you want to manufacture objects from molds, there is another option to step two: the injection machine.
Following these and the rest of the tutorials available online you can start building new products out of waste. Follow the creators’ YouTube channel to get the updates on the project:
If you are wondering, what can I do with this? Sky is the limit, keeping in mind plastic is one of the longest lasting materials on the planet. On the website there are examples and molds of different products that can be built with these machines.
Building machines is not for everyone, so people from the Precious Plastic project gives a chance to every single person wanting to get involved. Solving the plastic waste problem is everyone’s business, find the way to help according to your interests or skills.
