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South Africa (General discussion and info)
- This topic has 38 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by
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Hello
South Africans aren’t connecting on a local level.
Direct South Africans here for them to meet each other, discuss local issues and solutions and make announcements about local developements and news. We can create topics for smaller regions later. We are still too “scattered” and under-resourced for it to be useful.
Later on a “South Africans: Start Here” (or similar) topic will be good to summarise what beginners need to know to get started ASAP.
You gotta start somewhere, right?
Thanks
Frederik
Something to start with:
Experiences with building machines in South Africa
http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/building-machines-in-south-africa/
Leker Frederik,
Looking at the map, there are hundreds of people looking to get set up, seems like the biggest problem is sourcing cheap parts for the machines and\or getting investors.
I actually created a PP page of Facebook today, maybe we’ll get some traction on there-
https://www.facebook.com/PreciousPlasticZA/
Cheers
George
Hi @georgegee
You mention a lot of map pins. Ja, it would of been nice if they were all connected to actual people…but alas. Most seem to be dead accounts.
I’ve brought this problem to the attention of the One Army developers.
As for Facebook (“VleisBroek”)…I hate it.But keep us posted on what comes from it.
I want to keep things as local as possible. Meaning within a few kilometers from where I live. It’s about sustainability. City-wide meet-ups are fine from time to time. But for regular, ongoing projects, you need proximity. Especially for the township areas where public transport is awful.
See you around.
F.
This platform might not be working as well as it could for connecting local communities, though it’s very encouraging . Fb and instagram is the way forward for now, it’s just a means to an end\start. Massive scale marketing is needed locally to promote a movement, and for that, investment\sponsorship is key and what should be focused on. We’ll get there
To everyone, invite everyone
https://www.facebook.com/PreciousPlasticZA/
Hi, @brizo
If necessary, see if you can collaborate with people who are close to the borders.
Maybe some of the map pins in your area will respond:https://map.preciousplastic.com/
My understanding is that the borders are “soft,” but moving sufficient raw plastic across will probably be tricky. You should know better than me if regular border-crossing, to go to a workspace, is feasible. I haven’t been to Swaziland.
Otherwise try a search on general social media, (search for hashtags and place names, maybe.)
Or you’ll have to wait for some other folks to sign up here and find you on the map. Patience is a virtue.
Good luck
F.
Hi guys, frederikc thanks for the link to here..
I am shocked to see most people put pins but nothing is happening… i’m a scrap yard junkie everything I build is thanks to the local scrap yards.. its a treasure cove..
I also see its only George and you posting. well i’m here now as well 🙂 lol.. Will be Trying to build the machine with the least amount of cost for the beginners, experienced etc…….
Most of the stuff can also be sourced free of charge. By asking a neighbor.. maby something is in their way, and if they cant help maby their friends, family has that Broken Washing machine for motors etc.. spread the word. Will keep in touch.
Regards,
Adam
Hi @websterx
I’m having ongoing discussions with some people outside of the forums.
Some are signed up here. Others are not.
At this “early” stage it’s about finding common interests and assessing what everyone can and can’t bring to the table. This is a diverse community and everyone has their own goals.
That’s fine.
I’ll post here when I have something useful to report that multiple people can benefit from. No point in wasting people’s time with vague ideas and nothing to show.
Also, the Version 4 improvements will be able to help beginners a lot.
I’m also an absolute beginner with a huge learning curve ahead of me.
Regards
F.
@frederikc I totally agree with you and This all started with an Idea to build a community platform to Collaborate together..
Regards,
Adam
Hey guys, awesome to see.
I tried getting a shredder started about 18 months ago, but haven’t had much success. I was surprised at how cheap the laser cutting of the components was, but then the economy said spend on groceries…
Anyways, glad to see more locals here!
Hey guys, happy to see this thread! Thanks for linking me @frederikc.
Some good momentum going and hopefully kept up with the PPZA Instagram and fb pages.. I’m thinking that’s your doing @georgegee?
I agree there’s huge potential with these machines in the South African context, it may just require some ‘buy in’ so to speak in order to reach the audiences that it could truly benefit. Some help in obtaining this would be to emphasize (and act with) the decentralized, ground up and human centered ethos of the project.
In JHB: there are some PP machines in a workspace called ‘The Coloured Cube‘ and a machine builder out in Germiston who has helped build some PP machines.
In CPT: I only know of a few workspaces who have used and passe d on the machines, and now only Lionel who is currently active in in building them.
But I think we need more than machine builders to get this off the ground and into the bigger picture.. this discussion and some of the workspaces currently engaged are important
regarding EU – > Africa logistics: let me remind you that there are quite some African people all over Europe who manage aid containers also enjoying tax exemption to some degree. Here in Catalonia I know of at least 3 groups sending frequently containers down to Africa. Those people typically harvest scrapyards (also work there). I know they are also sending metals and motors, not just TVs,..
Other than that, there are humanitarian groups doing logistics south of Espanistan; those containers go straight to Morocco. So if you can partner up with European machine builders (we and our efforts on the subject have been shutdown, thanks @davehakkens). I am sure you can get at least the rare stuff to Africa : cold rolled steel (barrel, plunger); bigger batches of electronics; eg: heat bands.. Motors are usually not big problem but worm drives, couplings, drive-shafts, etc… are. On the other hand; do not forget that Africa has to process tons (A DAY), not a few kilos. It’s not just the top resource plundered by us Europeans (as usual rather the left overs of US companies) but also more likely becoming the trash bin looking at the China problem. However, the efficiency and power consumption of the PP machines won’t make much sense in Africa; I know that related investors for this Area will laugh at you pointing out the specs of PP. I’d rather look at hydraulic driven machinery but that still has to be investigated.
i remember now having this already worked out a little more in detail; in fact – if you really want to make a difference – the PP project should rather allocate resources to a few groups on this very continent. Having the legal means (subject to NGO/SME funds) but also technical capabilities focusing at the spot on the problem there is way more to get out as it is now. In particular 2-3 machine shops sponsored with PP money could establish enough back bone to get this further and develop machines with the resources at hand. In fact you won’t need start from scratch; it’s enough to find existing machine shops and equip them enough and also make viable and meaningful to them. It’s not that hard, looking at traditional machine shop in Africa you’d only 15000-20000 Euro per shop.
Thanks for the tips, @timslab, and thanks for representing SA in Eindhoven.
I’ve arranged a meeting with Lional. We’ll discuss some ideas.
Every country is different. Even what seem like minor cultural, political, economic or environmental differences can make a huge difference to the locals.
For example, Cape Town has a water crisis, due to severe drought. Until this is solved, washing large quantities of plastic for processing is a huge problem.
It’s important to keep in mind that what works well in one place, might work less well, or not at all, in another place.
While international help is great and sometimes necessary, I’m a fan of local self-sufficiency. Without getting too much into the politics of the matter, I would say that local self-sufficiency is exactly what’s needed to combat the globalization models that keep turning parts of the World into international garbage dumps. But to learn how to use what we have, we first have to figure out what we have. That part alone, can be tricky. It takes time and effort.
So…think global, act local…and stay tuned.
I wish it would be easy as this. From what i noticed most is an urgent knowledge and technology transfer to Africa (PP efforts Maldives noted); Anyways, looking the last 3 SME funded projects I’ve witnessed nothing but corruption and fake in this regard. Honestly, I cant speak of a single eu/state funded project which didn’t went down the toilet or better said, in the pockets of a few profiteers; nothing after all as advertised. PP as it is now and where it’s going isn’t exactly better IMO. My comments and regards were exactly addressing the conditions and facts in Africa btw ( I have enough friends down there otherwise I wouldn’t have suggest otherwise 😉 For instance, the last NGOs crossing my doorstep on the topic we just laughing when it came to 3D print or micro manufacturing .. I don’t mean to be negative but I’d at least suggest to consult experts on the subject. We’re not doing anyone a favor making a few able to produce some chairs or lamps .. or do we ? I don’t think we, as the most important generation in history of human kind are not exactly in the position to mess around with more resources – better said : the last – , are we ?
Tis I on the FB and IG. Before this thread gets too crowded again, here
is where things can be discussed. I’m getting a bunch of NGO’s and NPO’s involved to either partially of fully funding workshop setups in community centers and\or social entrepreneurship ventures. It’s exhausting. I’ll be working with an established Engineering practice as making the machines to a certain standard and the learning curve involved is a bit too much for me too bite into now. But if you can make these machines well- and you’re not greedy, let me know. Will be needing a lot of help. Cheers!
@georgegee, if you have more localized, better … machines; please care and share it with the others here as well. if it comes to build them, often details matter, to a certain game changer degree; also being of great help to all the africans trying to get started here – but often left alone ..
@georgegee I’ll try to get over my Facebook phobia, but I can’t promise anything. 🙂
@georgegee I joined the group It might be easier to communicate there and share information etc…
Sharing valuable information on Facebook or Instagram isn’t exactly helpful; I see way more benefits for anyone impacted if you would organize a wiki or similar on how to build and develop machines in Africa. Thanks. If you like i make a clone of pp.org for you, eg: africa.precious-plastic.org so everyone knows how to help, etc..
done, https://africa.precious-plastic.org should be visible in the next 10 hours. @websterx is admin. @donald and me are still discussing down/up streams for content in a p2p oriented PP version ..
Hello, folks
I’m continuously finding potential training and outreach opportunities in and around Cape Town, for people willing to put in the time and effort.
I just don’t want to make premature announcements of my plans.
So, there is slow progress being made. Just stay tuned. And tell the community about any initiatives that you have up and running.
I’m generally not a big fan of government and corporate sponsorship, since such initiatives tend to start out strong, and then fizzle out quickly when the political and public relations value starts to wane.
But there are a few subsidy options I’m looking at in terms of training people, since having professional machine builders alone is clearly not translating into functional workspaces / maker spaces.
Also, the original point was to tackle plastic pollution and waste.
Remember that “minor issue”?
Based on my latest discoveries, a city-wide meet-up for Cape Town is now feasible.
As we know, the layout of the city sucks, and getting from one side of the city to the other, can be a nightmare for most of us.
But I’ll find the best possible solution.
Like I said… stay tuned.
Regards
F.
Good day,
Just joined and exploring options for building and using the Precious Plastic machines for our beach cleaning plastic finds. At the moment we upcycle the finds in different items (puppets, bracelets, sculptures, mixed medium art).
I was wondering if any of you have experience if the machines are capable of melting fishing line?
Have a great day.
Henri
Hello @thebeachcombers
Since I live at the beach in False Bay, fishing is something I often watch being done, but have not done myself. (And I pretend not to freak out, when sharks are pulled out from the surf where everybody swims.)
Subsequently, I can’t tell you much about fishing line. But it’s the Information Age, so:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_line
It seems fishing line can be made from several different materials (including natural fibres), so you would have to first determine the melting point of each of them. And blends will probably be tricky.
There’s a PP beach plastic research team, based in the Maldives: http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/ocean-plastic-research/
Maybe see if they have advice on fishing line?
My guess is the best plan is to just try to upcycle the fishing line, and not try to reprocess it. That’s all I can think of, right now.
Cheers
F.
Update:
The discussion will continue here:
http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/melting-fishing-line/
Hi there Fredrik, thanks for the reply and pointing out the options to me, I will explore it.
Henri
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