$10,000 ON OFFER TO DEVELOP 3D PRINT RECYCLING MACHINES

Help Precious Plastic Create Open Source Recycling Machines

Dave Hakkens, the guy who came up with the idea of a modular smartphone system to reduce waste, called Phonebloks (subsequently bought by Vodaphone, and now in the hands of Google), is looking for an engineer to help him solve a different problem. Through his project Precious Plastic, Dave is looking to rethink the way we recycle plastics. He has already created several machines (including a shredder, rotational mold, plastic extrusion machine) to recycle common plastics on a sustainable local-based scale.

This proof of concept earned him a cheque for USD$10,000 that he is now offering to give to an engineer who is ready to push the project to the next level. Plastics represent the majority of feedstock used in personal printers. This includes ABS (used in Lego) and PET (found in plastic bottles) and the biodegradable PLA. Finding a way to cut down and/or reuse plastic waste would be very beneficial to the 3D printing world.

Some big players in 3D printing, such as Stratasys offer to recycle old filament cartridges and printers, not to mention several initiatives at a maker level. Precious Plastic is aiming to scale-up the maker solutions to recycling, while keeping them open source and easy to disseminate across makerspaces around the world. For this, they need someone with the technical expertise to assemble their own filament eco-cycle machines. You can apply to the position here, deadline to register is Christmas 2014.