Take one of the world's most accessible waste products, plastic, and turn it into a resource with a Precious Plastic V2.0 setup.

Within just a few generations, plastic has already taken over the world, and while this material enabled a revolution in manufacturing and design, plastic has also managed to become one of the biggest menaces on the planet, thanks to its convenience and ease of production. And although commercial collection and recycling of plastics is getting better and more accessible, in many areas plastics end up in the dump instead of the recycling facility, essentially burying this resource, which could be used to great effect if only the machinery were available to do so.

A few years ago, Kimberly wrote about the efforts of Dave Hakkens, who created a series of machines intended to put plastic recycling into the hands of the people. His Precious Plastics project promised free and open source blueprints, plans, and instructions for building these plastics recycling machines, which included a shredder, an extruding machine, an injection device, and a compression machine, and that information is now available on the website for anyone to download and put to work.

With a Precious Plastics V2.0 setup, which is designed to be built with basic tools and materials, communities, organizations, or individuals almost anywhere in the world will be able to transform plastic waste into new products, essentially recycling plastic right near where it's needed.

The plan for plastic recycling world domination has six basic parts:

1. Develop Machines

For the past two years we have been developing machines to recycle plastic waste, locally.

2. Share, for freeThe machines are developed using basic tools and materials. We share all the blueprints open source online. This way people around the world can build them.

3. Spread the know-howIn order to build these machines people need to know that the blueprints are available. We need to spread the know-how to every corner of the world.

4. CreateOnce the machines are built people can start experimenting, creating and producing new products from their local plastic waste.

5. Clean upThe primary goal is to recycle as much plastic as we possibly can. This would clean up our shared environment, improve living conditions and possibly create financial value!

6. CommunityAn important aspect of the project is to create a world wide community of like-minded plastic savers. People working for a cleaner future, sharing knowledge, helping each other, and collaborating.



© Precious Plastic

The full set of Precious Plastic V2.0 information, which includes the CAD files and blueprints as well as posters, images, and instructions, is available as a free download under an open-source license, and detailed videos are available on the website to guide people through the process.

Hakkens is also the latest recipient of The Next Nature Network's ECO Coin award, which is given to people and projects "that have outstandingly contributed to making this planet a more sustainable place to live." More info about the various projects that Hakkens is working on can be found on his website.