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Precious Plastics

At Precious Plastic we are trying to boost plastic recycling worldwide. Our bottom up approach aims to bring Precious Plastic technologies and knowledge in the hands of everyone, for free. The machines empowers people around the planet to start recycling plastic and create new financial value from an ubiquitous free resource, plastic waste.  The machines […]
Started: 2012
Completed: ONGOING
Based in:

Project story

At Precious Plastic we are trying to boost plastic recycling worldwide.

Our bottom up approach aims to bring Precious Plastic technologies and knowledge in the hands of everyone, for free. The machines empowers people around the planet to start recycling plastic and create new financial value from an ubiquitous free resource, plastic waste. 

The machines and workspace are specifically designed and developed using universal materials and basic tools that are available all over the world. A modular design allows users to adapt the machines to their specific contexts. Blueprints, detailed instruction videos and the download-kit are shared open source online for free. This is all the basic information people need to build their own machines and start a micro plastic factory, anywhere in the world. Entrepreneurs across the world can set up small scale productions to create valuable things, beautiful products, new raw material, clean up their neighborhood and start their own business.

This community's situation before they created change:

Yearly we produce a lot of plastic, last year 311 million tonne. But less than 10% of this plastic gets recycled. Most of this will end up in the wrong place, landfills, oceans, inside animals. It’s damaging our earth. The big plastic industry prefers to work with new plastic. Recycled plastic might slow down production or damage their machines. And people haven’t got the machines to start themselves. 

Precious Plastic has developed machines that enable people to start recycling plastic. The machines are specifically developed using universal materials and basic tools that are available all over the world. The blueprints, a series of detailed instruction videos and the download-kit are shared open source online This is all the basic information people need to build their own machines and start a little plastic factory, anywhere in the world. And set up small scale productions to create valuable things, like a craftsman of plastic. They can make products, raw material, set up a production, clean up their neighborhood, and start their own business. 

We share all all the information for people to start their own little plastic factory online, for free. But in order for this to have an impact we need to make sure people actually know this information exists. We need help to spread it around the globe, let people know they can now start to work with plastic. Once the information is spread, the recycling begins!

The community's first actions

Pilots

Pilots are unique opportunities to test Precious Plastic ideas, technologies and processes on the ground. The collaboration with UN-HABITAT in Kenya, was the first of a number of pilots, where the team joined forces with different partners to develop efficient plastic recycling workspaces worldwide; helping to end pollution, and offer local opportunities by creating value from waste. For Precious Plastic, this also offered great research and testing ground, enabling more informed iterations of the project in the future that are suitable for practical application.

Time Line 

2012 – Dave Hakkens starts to work on Precious Plastic as part of his studies a the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

2013 – Dave Hakkens releases Precious Plastic Version 1 during his graduation show at DAE.

2014 – Three people independently replicated the V1 recycling machines. This was enough to see the potentials.

2015 – Dave Hakkens and a team of five goes back to the drawing board and start developing Version 2.

Early 2016 -Precious Plastic Version 2 is released to the world. The internet is listening and a lot of people get to know about it.

Early 2017 -Dave, Mattia and a team of 12 start working on Version 3. The focus is to offer more techniques to work with the existing machines.

Late 2017 -Precious Plastic Version 3 is released to the world. The community is now mature and global.

Sept 2018 -Dave, Mattia, Kat and a team of 40 start working on Version 4. Developing new machines, techniques and strategies to tackle plastic waste.

Jan 2020 -The Precious Plastic Universe is released to the world and aims to become the global alternative recycling system.

Some positive outcomes of the changes

Hundreds of people around the world are daily using Precious Plastic to recycle plastic waste into new products. You can get a glimpse by checking #preciousplastic. But, the amount of plastic waste on our planet is massive. 

– Over 100 million people were reached within the first month from launch of the version3 

– The press covered Precious Plastic extensively (Business Insider, Upworthy, Dezeen, Wired and many more..)

-To date there are 200+ early adopters that are recycling plastic waste using our bottom up solution

– People started all over the world from Korea, Mexico, US,  Australia, Japan, UK, South Africa, Indonesia, US, Cambodia, China and many more (see all of them here)

– Precious Plastic counts on an active online community of 40K +

– Precious Plastic won numerous awards (Impact Award, Eco Coin, Social Award Eindhoven and more) 

Follow on social:
https://www.instagram.com/realpreciousplastic/?hl=en

Facts & Stats

Project Champions

Dave Hakkens – Board Member – Mostly checking from afar and leading high-level strategy.

Yann Chauvin – Project Manager – Responsible for the iterative development of the Precious Plastic machines.

Mattia [Perez] Bernini – Design Director – Strategy, design and web at Precious Plastic since 2015.

Carolina Espinoza – Industrial Design Manager – Designing new iterations of the machines and production.

Hugh Coombs – Community Manager – Strategising and managing the communication and Community Platforms.

Katharina Elleke – Bazar Manager – Managing and Directing the Precious Plastic Bazar

Joseph Klatt – Managing Director – Making Precious Plastic financially sustainable to scale its impact.

Resources and links

Precious Plastic – YouTube

 

Sustainable Development Goals:
Industries:
Advocacy and Campaigns, Circular Economy, Community and Economic Development, Conservation and Land Management, Economic Inclusion, Education and Training, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, Environment, Green Architecture / Property, Green Energy, Green Products / Services, Manufacturing, Science, Trade, Waste Management and Recycling

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