Collaborate, Build, Learn

Introduction

We are all big believers in open source and community working. One amazing example of people coming together to solve real world problems is https://preciousplastic.com/

They challenge everyone to make an active contribution to decrease plastic pollution and help people make a business out of plastic recycling.

Precious Plastic is a global community of hundreds of people working towards a solution to plastic pollution. Knowledge, tools and techniques are shared online, for free. So everyone can start (yes, you too!).

The designs are great, their documentation amazing and the cause is very important. Not only this particular problem of plastics but the issue of how we work together to solve big global problems.

What we are doing?

We have a team of enthusiastic members who are keen to develop this project as much as possible with the aim of contributing to this project as much as possible. We aim to build an initial set of machine to do the basic processing tasks. We have decided to start with the shredder machine and the injection moulding machine and these will allow us to start making something as quickly as possible. From there the extrusion and compression machines will be high on our list. We want to be able to demonstrate these machines to teach and inspire others about the importance of plastic recycling.

Progress so far...

Affectionately called the "Muncher", we downloaded the plans and had parts laser cut in steel. Then welded the plate together along with bearing and a shaft bought from the Precious Plastic Bazar which is an amazing shop for selling whole machines, parts, moulds and final plastic products.

If this video makes your nervous then please be assured this is the first test run and we will be adding lots of extra safety.

Whats next?

Now we can chop milk bottles up into teeny tiny pieces we need to do something with them. The next machine we want to build is the injection moulder which comprises of a heated tube and a manual lever to squish hot plastic through a nozzle. This can then be forced into moulds to make the final product.