Precious Plastic

     

Precious Plastic Release status: beta [box doku]
Description	DIY Plastic Recycling
Author(s)	David, Katharina, Severin
Download	Website, Instagram

Precious Plastic is a project for DIY plastic recycling. David and Severin have started been building a plastic recycling workshop in our lab, and here you can find a bunch of information on it. More about the worldwide project on their website.

You think this idea is super awesome? You can be a part of it! Here's how:

Collect Plastic

The easiest way to help out is to collect plastic. Most of us still use a lot of single use plastic at home. Let's put it to some good use.

The Elevator Pitch

Collect these three things:

• Joghurt Cups (also Cream, Custard, .., these plastic things with usually a foil lid on top)
• Shampoo Bottles
• Cream Cheese Containers

Make sure they're clean (you can usually simply throw them in the dishwasher alongside your other dishes), and bring them to our workshop for shredding and recycling.

Get others to collect plastic

• Ask your local Döner place or other restaurant about what they do with plastics. They usually get some of their ingredients in big plastic buckets.
• Get your neighbors involved

Gather Tools and Machine parts

We still need a few things for our workshop. If you or someone you know might have access to any of this, and could donate it to us, that would be amazing. Here's our current list:

• Motors
  • Motor for the extrusion machine
    • Speed between 50 and 100 rpm
    • around 0.75 kW power
  • Replacement motor for the shredder
    • Speed between 50 and 120 rpm
    • Torque around 200 to 350 Nm
    • Motors with these speeds should have a power rating around 2 kW to have enough torque
• T-Shirt Press
• VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) for the extrusion motor

Join our Meetup & our Workshop

We have started our monthly meetup series. Check the Meetup page for the next date.

Donate

Building these machines and keeping them running costs time and money. So does getting them to events and shows. You can send us a donation via PayPal by mentioning Precious Plastic in the message.

Communication

Social Media

You can find us on:

• Instagram as @preciousplasticmunich
• Twitter as @preciousplasmuc
• Facebook

Newsletter

We are working on sending out some updates on what we do once or twice a month. You can signup here

Within the Team

• WhatsApp Group
• Slack Channel #preciousplastic in MunichMakerLab Slack
• Mailinglist preciousplastic@munichmakerlab.de

Next Steps

What are our plans for the (very) near future?

• Finish our injection molding machine ✅
• Make some molds and inject some cool parts
• Get a mold for the compression machine
• Have a booth at Make Munich 2019 and show some stuff to the world ✅
• Get our own workshop

Collecting

We're collecting different types of plastic in labeled black boxes ( + one box for the stuff we're not sure about). Everything should be clean before it gets into the boxes!

• Acrylic is really hard to recycle apparently, so we're not collecting that
• PVC can currently not be recycled.
• Bubblewrap is apparently really cool.
• While other soft plastics and foils are not usable, because the will simply stretch in the shredder and clog it.
• Sorting through the plastics recycling bin helps us reduce the amount of plastic trash
• Dumpster diving on the KQ?

Further pages

• Our Machines
• Stuff we're currently trying to figure out
• Materials & Temperatures
• Cost
• Outreach
• Partnerships
• Other groups around us
• Side projects and project ideas related to Precious Plastic