We are super excited to announce the beginning of the #PlasticWithoutBorders project in collaboration with Electra Energy Cooperative and Αλληλεγγύη για Όλους. The following months Precious Plastic Greece will build machines and operate an innovative workshop in Athens together with a group of refugees, aiming to meaningful reuse, recycle and creative use of plastic.

About Precious Plastic Greece
Precious Plastic Greece (PPG) is a growing team of exciting people, inspired by the Precious Plastic project, which begun in Netherlands by Dave Hakkens and aims to tackle the issue of plastic waste recycling, repurpose and reuse through a straightforward, creative, inclusive, community based and practical way. Initially, two long time friends, Alexandros Filippidis and Christos Kagkis, both carrying many years of experience on building, constructing, metal work, energy, sustainability. non formal education and social activism, spent just few months researching and finally constructing the machines required, which are part of a 4 machines set. Precious Plastic Greece was created. Since November 2016 that we first stumbled upon the Precious Plastic approach, wanted to investigate more about it, which led to building two machines, a shredder and an extruder, based on open source designs. The machines were built and used for the TouchThePast project which took place in the city of Argos during Spring/Summer 2017. These machines allowed the shredding of plastic which creates flakes, and then used through an extruder to created filament for 3d printing for further use. Due to the popularity of Precious Plastic project globally and with the support of a huge supporting community, lots of people throughout Greece have expressed already their interest on Precious Plastic machines, filling us with energy and certainty to continue and grow our project.

About the project
The aim of this project is through non formal education methods, to provide the necessary skills, knowledge and empowering tools to teams of refugees in order to be able to build such machines, operate them and be creatively productive with them. We aim to build 3 fully functional machines and molds, which will allow the shredding of reclaimed plastic and through molding to create functional objects.
The project will be carried in 3 phases. Phase 1, will be a session of presentations about sustainability, plastic and the Precious Plastic project, in order to familiarize the participants with the concept and aims of the project. Phase 2, will consists of a safety and skill building session, followed by several sessions of constructing the machines in the chosen workshop and locations. Phase 3, will be all about using the machines, melting and using plastic, designing a workshop area and a general planning on marketing and branding these products created, through a participatory and inclusive way, using various tools such as non violent communication tools and co decision methods. An exhibition and dissemination event will conclude the project if possible.
The proposed duration of the project is 3-4 months.

Project outcomes
The project wishes that participants will get the necessary ideas, skills and tools to create a follow up project, such as a social cooperative around the innovative concept of plastic recycling or carry with them these skills to build new machines and initiatives in their future residing locations. Through this empowering process, creativity and skill development will be reinforced as well as combined with inclusivity and sustainability

If you wanna learn more feel free to mail us at [email protected] or give us a ring at +306995292128.

We will keep the community update and thanks everyone for your inspiration and support.

Keep melting, keep cleaning the world.

Best,
Alex Filippidis
Precious Plastic Greece
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