Category:Precious Plastic

ProjectInfoBox Precious Plastic
Status:	some parts ordered
Release Date:	first machine(s) in 2018?
Initiator:	Dave Hakkens
Team:	Lukas, Mitja, Armin, Johannes, Luca, Sebastian, Martin, Flor, who else would like to help?
Materials Used:	plastic waste

Precious Plastic is an international community working on plastics recycling. You can download their entire "kit" of documentation on various open-source machines here.

There are several members who are interested in building one or multiple of their machines (see InfoBox).

Goal

Plastics are very versatile materials, but are mostly made from non-renewable sources and can persist in the environment for very long times after their (often short) intended life cycle.

Naturally, many people concerned with sustainability have tried to come up with ways to reuse, repurpose and recycle "waste" plastics and we want to join them! As a community workshop, we can build machines that individuals might not be able to and share them with interested people in the area. Maybe the CoMakingSpace becomes a bit of a recycling hub in the near future?

Collecting/Preparing Waste

Something we can already do is collecting materials and sorting them for further use - starting with waste from the 3D printer farm, for example. There would just need to be separate containers for PLA, PETG and whatever else people are printing with, and some sort of clear signage alerting everyone of the importance to sort carefully.

Mixed colors will give nice effects, but mixing different plastics might mess everything up due to their different melting points.

• how to wash & dry?

Machines

Shredder

laser cut shredder parts before assembly

=> Instructions

Armin got the laser cut parts, they are in a box the Metal Workshop.

We still need to order a piece of 27 mm (Schlüsselweite) hexagonal steel. Does anyone know what grade is suitable? Perhaps Automatenstahl like this?

Tasks

The following tasks should be sufficient in order to assemble the shredder. If everybody is fine with github, we can also move this task list into a project on github. Please contact Martin if you want this to be done.

Extrusion

=> Instructions

...to be built once the shredder is finished

Injection

=> Instructions

...to be built once the shredder is finished

Compression

=> Instructions

...to be built once the shredder is finished

Rotomolder

Not part of the precious plastic portfolio - could be made from an old cement mixer, just needs some add-ons for temperature control, a timer and some way to automatically rotate the handwheel (Flor has some experience with it).

You can make cool hollow shapes with a rotomolder, e.g. lamps like these!