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Precious Plastic Version 4? 😮
- This topic has 160 replies, 107 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by
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You might have been aware that we launched Precious Plastic Version 3 a few months back. Maybe. We made many new things, introduced the bazar, container workspace, a series of art objects, a map for collaboration, more techniques and a way for the community to share their own tutorial videos. Quite a lot. Our main focus for this version was on expanding the platform and making it easier for people to collaborate.
This period is really fun for us. Seeing what the community, you guys do with the information. Always exciting to see if its used the way we intended. But besides observing we also gather feedback, comments, posts, topics we see or improvements we could do. And I can’t help myself, but slowly I think about what a V4 would look like.
So thats where this topic is for. To share your ideas, suggestions,improvements. What would you like Precious Plastic to work on and improve next? Throw it in here! Together we set the course 💪
*Oh and I might look inactive every now and then because i don’t leave a reply but I read all of it. No kidding.
Maybe a collaboration with Boyan Slat of “The Ocean Cleanup” could be beneficial. Once they start extracting all that plastic from the ocean they hope they’ll be able to recycle it. Maybe this is where the Precious Plastic Community can come in and help out!
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology/
Hi
All the machine but transportable.
In a suitcase for example…
A post with poney 😁 already présented a solution: paper shredder and mini injection.
Allowing little plastic parts production…
For sensibilisation on waste problematic or touristic gifts business.
DiB
I struggle to Message everyone for group events in my country. I would be great to be able to send a quick message to a group that could be filtered down a little tighter.
I would like to be able to message everyone in New Zealand about meet ups or training or promotions etc so we can drive this harder in NZ.
Being able to narrow the location down would be handy as well like to a city or province
The forum is very simple and minimalistic but at the same time hard and confusing to navigate. The search button doesn’t work very well, if you’re looking for something in particular, something interesting that you remember seeing a few months ago, it’s hard to find it again.
Every now and then there are very interesting messages that we should find a way to keep track of, it could be just a list of links to make sure we don’t lose them, but something to think for the future would be to have a separate wiki where the best posts, research, or articles get posted. Or a mention of these interesting post on the monthly news? Or improving the search engine?
my feedback 🙂
Hi everyone,
This is my point of view on the V4 version :
– I think machines will get natural improvement if more people take part in PP project, so I don’t think it’s key to the project development
– So I think the question V4 has to answer is Why are people not joining this awsome project ?
-> Is it because it costs money ?
===> I don’t think so, a Macbook costs more money 🙂 Ok, it can be a problem for some communities, but it’s more a problem of investment, because then your can earn money with the project.
-> Is it because they don’t know about it ?
===> I think yes, it’s part of the answer, so I would develop the notoriety of the project among Engeneering Schools (Have you heard about Shell Eco-Marathon ? We could have the same for PP ?) and most of all, among environmental non profit ! They are always looking for this kind of very concrete project, it would spread very fast I think. We could also work with small towns mayors, where there are looking for projects to gather the citizens with innovation, so they can be a model for others cities and attract new citizens.
-> Is it people don’t feel able to create a PP local project, even with your precious plans and advice ?
===> Well, I have to say, very personnally, I’ve been following you since a year now, and as I’m not an engeneer, and also I think, as I’m a woman, I never felt able to realise the machines.
There are two parts of the project who could be easier to me :
– Building the machines. I know videos are already detailed but when you start from scratch, a MOOC would be perfect. Very seperate part of machine buildings could be teached by members of the community ? As well as basic knowledge on engeneering ?
– Designing the molds. I think it’s useless for environment to create an object from recycled plastic, and then selling it far away. So maybe we could have instead a big librairy of 3D molds plans, with plans from every PP community of the world ? So that growing community will not start from cratch in every field of the PP project ? I’m ready to buy mold plans, also to emprove them to be fashionable, it could be easier to involve new members if, before the machines, they could realise how many nice objects we can do with them. I always look on instagram to see what community members did, but I think there are not enough objects.
Also I’m MORE THAN READY to help building a worldwide communication kit which could be used by every community in their countries with their politics, schools and non-profits. Even with industries, to help collecting plastic in larger quantities.
From using the injector and evaluating making the compression machine, it seems that making parts on these machines is limited due to the time needed to heat up the plastic. It would be nice to create a heated hopper or some sort of heated storage tank/extruder that could be used as the input to the injector and compression machines. Has anyone tried something like this? I guess the risk is that the injector would clog up if the material does not flow well enough. The compression machine might be easier. I’m visualizing using something almost like a large heated caulk gun.
Nice device, but it will be cool to wash and separate plastic at same time. For example mix of two plastics PET & HDPE, PS & PP etc.
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@copypastestd @davehakkens
I think we could modify a diy coffee roaster to suit our purpose for drying and washing i have made one and its not that hard you can ge materials anywhere
Quite bizar..I just bought a cutter like this 2 hours before i joined this site. Not for cutting plastic, but it made me wonder about cheaper alternatives to the shredder.
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Check out the topic I created about expanding global impact with a business plan http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/business-plan-proposal/
I think having a way to organize all the posts in the forums by country or at least filter by country would be useful. Since I’m in the US and it seems most of the active users are in Europe it’d be nice to be able to get in touch with people in ones own country. Also maybe a thread dedicated solely to the uses of recycled plastic. There are tons of great ideas but most of them are broad. I think if people saw ideas and suggestions of things to make that could replace everyday items. It’s kind of like Dave’s video about stop printing random crap with 3D printers. To really make an impact there should be a push for practical applications rather than just making plastic pots, soap dishes etc.
i think it would be easier for the beginners if we have a little more description and detail for the pin on the map feature. Like when exactly a pin added to the map ? Then, for now is it still active ? How if that person was inactive for a year or even more ? Or it does to our profile, a little detail of ‘user last log in time’ on the website gonna be helpful.
Hi
other silly idea…🤯
Ask international recognition of our territory: the plastic continent. We have also to think about gouvernement, élection, money, flag… And annexion of it.
We are, as precious plastic community, the only ones to consider it as a valuable thing.
Of course by extension we will ask the participation of our athletes to the Olympics games.
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There really should be a “things that jam” thread for the V3 design.
I think the shredder is a subconscious universal want (kind of like sports car). Interesting how many posts have that as the first item to build. Below is my shredder and the typical size I need for my injection machine. As far as I know, the extruder is the only machine that definitely needs the smaller flakes produced by the shredder. For the other machines, it may just mean somewhat longer or higher temperature melt times if at all. My shredder is pretty quick and I can produce a sizable pile during one This Old Tony video.
@pporg , I think you are marketing the shredders to the wrong application. First and foremost, the shredder can be a therapy tool. If you were to make a transparent, coin operated (I know, old school) version to put in large office break/lunch rooms, there would be a steady income stream. I would add a 5X torque button for clearing jams (extra coin of course). With a couple of extra safety features, they would do well in bars as well.
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another thing which should go into the ‘getting started checklist, buying guide’ of the v3/v4 machines: people should be made aware of that most machine builders weld the frame out of tubes together. as result people are unable to get into a car!
it takes a half day for a welded frame but more than a full day to make a frame with tubes which can be disconnected via screwes(up to 20 euro), it changes the material bill by 30 euro in total…
whilst at it, please also warn people that the machines could easily exceed their electricity contract! for instance we build only shredders with at least 3 hp, more preferably 5hp = 4kw. the standard contract in spain is 3.3kw, after that, the meter shuts down.
whilst at it, please really tell people in the same document about the extruder capacity! the machine is already expensive but realizing then that it only extrudes plastic with certain volume limit changes EVERYTHING. they will be unable to produce anything bigger than we see now in the bazar all over the place….
my 2 cents 🙂
Hola. Soy Fabiana, de Ushuaia, Tierra del fuego, Argentina. Estoy muy entusiasmada por hacer realidad el proyecto en la isla, tenemos graves inconvenientes con los residuos en general.
Hace 3 días que recorro la pagina, un inconveniente para mi es el idioma y otro el no recibir respuestas a todos los mensajes enviados. No se porque no aparezco en el mapa, ya me registré.
Pienso que estaría bueno un paso a paso para los recien llegados o inexpertos como yo. Poder elegir el idioma sería genial.
Quiero replicar la idea!. Pensaba armar el proyecto para articular con escuelas tecnicas que puedan colaborar con la construcción de las máquinas, como una practica profecionalizante y con las ONG como socio indispensable para la multiplicación de los espacios de recogida.
Necesito ideas💭💎!!!
Ayuda!!! 👂SOS🙏🙏💃
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I think there should be a dedicated section for product ideas. The bazaar is for selling things sure but not everyone is using it. To be truly successful we must have thing s for people to make that will get bought. If those items are essentials to daily living then they will fly out the door and put pressure on the collecting, shredding moulding etc which would be great! I am a practical person and things like mallet heads and knife handles grips and practical. A lovely woven style fruit basket would gather dust.
Hi Dave,
FFirst of all thanks 👍🏽 for doing this!
I have one .. suggestion , I dreamed about it!! If the machine can be compact , like an small dispenser that can be relocating easily in any kitchen, who makes plastic bricks 📦
The consumer put the plastics In the small container this one melt the plastic into a brick blok… And disposer it in to a container, that’s special made for this bricks…. The bricks are going to be recycled to build houses, road, floating islands etc ……
🌏📦🏘️🙏
HI! PRECIOUS PLASTIC COMMUNITY
IDK if you are planning to process PET but it would be a interesting development in your extrusion machine, When I heard about this project i started to imagine what would happen if we can upcycle all of that bottles that we can find everywhere. I did my research why we cant heat the PET and produce again something precious, and basicaly we need to redesgin the screw to create a descompresion chamber in the middle so then we can encrease the preasure again avoiding thermal-oxidation and hydrolisis created by the water that could absorbe the PET, or another alternative that could happen is introduce a new a machine to dry and clean the PET before the usage into precios plastic Machines, But It would be nice to speak it with a Chemical engineer too.
I would love to help in the process
So feel free to contact me
Hello Precious Plastic,
While researching for self made injection molding machines I found this one
– and maybe the idea could be interesting for speeding up production. At least for small objects. I didn`t research regarding patent…
If someone already mentioned this and I didn`t see, please ingnore 😉
Cheers,
Max
Please read this! This seems to be the most effective plan for Project Kamp!
We are working on developing project kamp here in Brazil, that is, building a new city, starting by first developing the recycling center of the city and then, building the rest of the city around it with plastic and metal trash we colect for free from the surrounding cities as the main raw material with which we build the city. Also, after the recycling center is done and working, the next thing is to develop machines made from the recyled materials to set up a vegetarian burger production line. the same way you guys made a set of machines to recycle plastic, we aim t o build a set of machines to produce raw vegan hamburgers, vegan cheese, bread, and beltways and what not so as to make a production line where vegan sandwiches are produced automatically, without any need for human labor. produce a vegan meal that is cheap and accessible to everyone. so the step-by-step for project kamp COULD be:1. form a group of people;2. raise the money;3. buy a piece of land that is large enough and as flat as possible;4. form a multi-sector cooperative5. design the city, that is create the blueprint of it6. begin construction, starting with the recycling center7. once recycling center is operational, use it to produce recycled plastic bricks or houses and to produce machines that automate the production of food (agriculture) and water, and the transportation and preparation of food… with this vegan cheap food you can sell it to near by towns and make profit and use it to further develop the project and the new city… and the same goes for the plastic houses…
I think that it is a multi-pronged approach that should be taken to help solve the plastic pollution problem in a sustainable way and the international Precious Plastic community can help lead the solution.
1. Starting at the source, we need to help the companies that are the largest producers of single use plastic waste (i.e. from B.A.N. 2.0 study – Starbucks, Coke, Wrigley’s, McDonalds) to find viable alternatives to single use plastics as the delivery mechanisms of their products. Consumers currently do not have many convenient, non-single use or plastic-free options which is why the average consumer is not willing to change their behavior and why we have so much plastic waste. I think that money invested in research and development of production capabilities of viable alternatives is critical. And, efforts for outreach and activism to get these large multi-national brands to change will be necessary.
2. We still need to do something with the near endless amounts of plastic waste that exists today. I suggest that we figure out ways to easily and quickly convert the large amount of plastic waste into USEFUL objects. So far Precious Plastic has done great at driving awareness and making plastic recycling accessible to everyone, but I think that we need to make sure we aren’t turning garbage into garbage and thus making things that will be thrown away (or only a small percentage recycled). As a community we should focus on creating objects that will be used for 5+ or even 20+ years like building materials. For this reason, I think that machines focused on building wall panels and building materials will be most worthwhile.
3. Figure out ways to take plastic ‘out of circulation’ – since the use of plastic is going to continue to cause problems for our oceans and global pollution till it is either 100% recycled (which is highly unlikely to ever happen) or we have come up with better alternatives. My somewhat idealistic vision is that we could figure out ways to collect and protect the plastic so that it never goes back into circulation. Think of building something like the great pyramids out of plastic that would be a protected monument that would never get torn down or recycled. It would ideally be a tourist attraction to drive awareness to the period of history when people thought there was no way to live without plastics.
I invite you to continue the conversation about how we join forces to make a global impact on the plastic pollution crisis.
@mate : thumbs up to all what you just said ! I am also waiting for stock plastics, i have plenty of small niche products (expensive ones: cable insulation, screw caps, tool holders,… ) in the queue. My hope was to simple order such stock plastics (bars, cylinders) from PP – bazar and start producing but i can’t even get a quote… I already asked traders around here, they would buy it definitely. All I’m saying: the money is there, waiting for us to pick it up. I can’t wait for the day where we have metrics on the PP site: x tons plastic recycled today, x tons back in circulation,…. kudos!
hi,
laser cut alternative: to avoid of laser cuts and use traditional machines (mill or low-budget CNC as i have), you can use discs and stuck them together. i can share more detail next week after i’m done with the first experiments: basically as in industrial shredders: one large disc representing the blade, and one smaller disc serving as washer (as in PP design). that larger disc can be machined with a mill and even an angle grinder. to avoid the hex bar: put a stick though all and weld the outer discs on the shaft, this can be improved but it’s pretty solid & cheap design.
by limits i mean the limits of the machines according to the official PP specifications: ie: no HDEP bottles,… maximum extrusion volume per second.
i opened a thread here in the forum : “inefficient blade design”, i will post updates there as soon I can 🙂
the reason i came up: i have 2 different clients, people with or without money. on the belt variant i will give updates soon too. you need a reducer of min. 200 euro in the EU to make this work good 🙂 in other continents this may get even worst. there is for instance no scrap yard here in spain with reducers for the mentioned price in the PP documents.
seeya soon,
g
here my toughts on v4:
– avoid this bloody hex bar, laser cuts altogether. because that design alone doubles – tripples the price for the blades and also forces people to buy from pretty expensive laser services:
– use more thick and shorter blades, just as in industry shredders, that’s also far more easy to machine with traditional machines: lathe & mills as in most metal shops present. also to avoid wear outs
– consider a low cost build/variant with belt drives, those are relative easy and cheap to produce, also in emerging countries
– combine shredder and extruder in one machine, avoids the extra motor and reducer
– please stop exposing your scrap yard based prices! it creates the illusion this is cheap whilst in reality machine builders just don’t have the time to visit scrap yards over and over again to find the right parts. you can also show people 2 different prices: with new components = 1000-1400 euro, and your scrap yard variant
– please include resource list in the documents (components & sources & services per country/continent)
– please make the resource part on Github available
– please include metrics : shredding & extrusion capacity, average power consumption
– please include limits of the machines, ie: the PP shredder is actually pretty limited, …
– please make bazar & site metrics available
– please include wiring diagrams for the eletronics
that’s it for now, if you guys need a hand…. i’m currently compiling such lists, also videos to build a CNC for molds,…
kind regards,
guenter
I agree with ‘ervengue’. It would make so much more sense to help 1-2 machinist in a country who then can provide cheaper machines inside the country.
I am trying since quite a while now to have the machines cheaper but it requires too much invest to produce this machines more efficient and cheaper. Right now I am already good equipped but it’s nothing compared what you actually need to build this machines in series. For now, I am tackling the extrusion machine (drill , average cost : 100e) and a self-made motor reducer(average cost : 300 – 500 euro) and also trying to find a cheaper way to make blades (laser cut = 200 euro) out of cylinders with a CNC & lathe. With proper machinery the shredder could be reduced from 1200 Euro (strong & quality) down to 400 Euro. Also I noticed that the shredder should be combined with the extruder (along the same drive shaft) = this alone saves you another motor and reducer. I do this in my spare time and it’s pretty hard with limited resources, other machine builders seem to have the same problem, that’s why: please funnel your resources per country/continent, make sure we can produce machines cheaper and in return we can shred more plastic.
I also noticed the lack of resources for mold builders, same story: allocate per continent some guys you can count on to make cheap molds. Right now I’m preparing some videos to introduce and motivate the PP community to build their own CNC (for less than 2500 euro = 5 molds).
just saying, currently I think we are way too fragmented. The items in the bazar are not moving, and worst: I can’t get quotes on a stock-plastic request. That’s a clear sign that we’re stuck 🙂
it also seems there are 2 different kind of people here: people doing some plastic shredding for fancy stuff like cups, lamps,…and others who would do
this on a professional base, ie: make a living with plastic (me) because, doing this as hobby requires still tooo much time, not sure how this could remotely change anything. I think as long we don’t get plastic back into system more organized, we’re stuck in the ‘nice idea’ phase of the project (please don’t beat me).
There are also more events and 3dhubs in countries, someone should get there and connect the PP community 🙂
…
kind regards,
Guenter
I agree with many of the above sentiments. While upgrades for the existing machines are welcome, I too, think we need to focus on the addition of washing (top priority, IMO) and sheet-making machines. Sheets of materials are easier for my personal storage solution, and the use of sheet plastic can be seen in a lot of different avenues.
Hi All. I would like to see a sign-in button/ icon at the top of the page. I feel like I have to dig around in order to sign in. I tried to download the packet to get started, but it would not work. I am on an Apple IOS platform, and for some reason Safari would not except the file. 😞 I am very anxious to get started with a PP project!!
I would also like to see more pedal powered machines. Example, the shredder, extruder. vM Designs on Facebook has a machine that is a bicycle shredder/ extruder combo. However I boycott Facebook. If anyone can snag those designs (they are free source), and put them on precious plastic, that would be great!!! There is a video of how this combo works on YouTube. Type in “news recycling bicycle,” and the video should come up.
I think it would be beneficial if you made a shredder design that turns manually rather than a motor because it would be cheaper to build and it wouldn’t use up electricity
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