| The Perpetual Plastic Project is all about local recycling of plastics. The installation enables consumers to recycle their disposable plastic cups their selves, on the spot. 3D printers take care of the last step of the process by building all sorts of products from the freshly recycled material. |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
First of all the cups need to be cleaned and dried. |
By brute hand force, the cups are shredded to small pieces. |
The plastic is melted and extruded into filament. |
The 3D printer uses the filament to print all kind of products. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The premiere of this project has been this summer at the Lowlands 2012 festival. About 20.000 people visited the Llowlab science exhibition, many of them checked out the Perpetual Plastic Project. Love was spread!
 |
The goal of the project has two ends: Enabling people to recycle their waste on the spot and to create awareness among people about the whole concept of recycling in itself and how this concept works. Therefore the installation was made as transparent and accessible as possible: Visitors operate the machinery themselves and see how their disposable cups transform into raw material and eventually how a new 3D printed product is created. |