Launched for the recycling of plastics on a local scale, the initiative Precious Plastic makes sense in a FabLab where plastic waste, especially due to 3D printing, is significant.
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[EN VIDÉO] Interview 5/5: recycling electronic devices Faced with their abundance, recycling electronic objects is a challenge posed by sustainable development. François Moisan, Executive Director of Strategy and Research at Ademe (French Environment and Energy Management Agency), talks to us about the solutions envisaged to respond to them.
Emblematic machines of the FabLabs which are gradually revolutionizing the world of digital manufacturing, 3D printers still have one major flaw: they consume a lot of energy. plastic and generate waste. A piece of data that works when we know that 368 million tonnes of plastic were produced in 2019, of which 91 % are not recycled. Hence the idea of Precious Plastic proposed by the Dutch Dave Hakkens: open source kits so that everyone can build their own miniature factory of recycling of plastic.
An open source plastic recycling unit
Sure the association’s website, you will therefore find all the elements to create a local small-scale recycling unit: the plans to create the various necessary machines (grinder, extruder, injection press and compression), tips for organizing the process, instructions for craft various objects from recycled materials (lamps, furniture, crockery, etc.) and an interactive map to locate recycling workshops or machine manufacturers near home. All computer programs, blueprints and reference materials are freely available and freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike International 4.0 license.
Interest in FabLabs and 3D printing
These mini recycling factories therefore naturally have their place in FabLabs. They give a second life to plastic materials, in the form of new objects or as a filament which theimpression 3D.
The FabLab in Nîmes Understood this well and got to grips with the subject quite quickly because ” it corresponded to the logic of the place, namely inclusion, the development of initiatives and ecological transition, specifies Rajaâ Nouali, its co-founder and coordinator. L’initiative Precious Plastic must allow us to recycle our own waste, in particular 3D printing residues, but also to create a new one matter for our uses as workplates ».
Become a collection point for waste from 3D printers at the local and departmental level but also a resource place to teach others to make their own machines
Become a point of reference and a collection point
Even if they were somewhat slowed down by the various confinements, two teams were formed to carry out the project, one dedicated to the manufacture of machines and the other to education on plastic recycling.
Rajaâ Nouali confirms this: “ Our intention is to become a collection point for waste from 3D printers at the local and departmental level but also a resource place to teach others to make their own machines and why not allow schools to integrate a workshop. recycling within them “. For this, the association received the support of Nîmes Metropolis.
Performance and profitability for the fourth version
The project initiated in 2013 by Dave Hakkens, during his last year at the Design Academy Eindhoven, has evolved a lot since it is already in its fourth iteration. It now brings together a community of more than 400,000 people spread over more than 400 workshops on five continents. Aware of the issue of the investment required to set up these recycling workshops, in the order of several thousand euros for a complete unit, Precious Plastic launched its fourth version. New machine models are thus proposed, as well as business plans to make these miniature plastic recycling factories profitable.
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