2019 Edition

Should we feel guilty for having developed such a technology that plastic bottles are now so unexpensive, lightweight and robust to end up in the end of everybody, including those which then dispose them into nature? Let’s say we should definitely feel guilty if we do not look for a solution to a problem we somehow contributed in feeding. About us, we decided to create a deposition head inique in its performance. Able to to preserve polymer properties, to process tricky polymers (because of feedstock morphology, processing temperature, etc.) and to deposit them in alternation, adding one more controllable dimension to the 3D of additive manufacturing. The result is the technology we call Dynamic Additive Moulding, or simply Additive Moulding that, together with Extrusion Moulding, Injection Moulding, Blow Moulding, Rotational Moulding, etc. make possible the production of parts defined by 3 dimensions (x,y,z) and one about material (m). And how does this matches with recycling? For example, this technology allows to “hide” (because most of the times it really looks bad and we all know the story of the ugly ducky isn’it?) the recycled fraction inside and a cosmetically good polymer as a jacket. The word “recyclABLE” is popular and this is a good thing, at the end it evokes the magic word, recycle, but it’s not as bad as the recyclED, still we know that frequently, reciclING, takes a deeper step into environment than just make the new material, in other words… recyclABLE, doesn’t mean it’s gonna be recyclED… Washing, decontaminating, purifying are, in our part of the world, more and more over-ruled by bureaucracy and norms, controls and formalities, this is making recycling so expensive and complex that, for some, it become simply more practical, after having being paid for recycling or circularize somehow the resource, to pass it back to somebody in a different country, that will disperse it in the environment. This 3/7 means that we loose a resource, we contaminate the ecosystem, we degrade the landscape and bottom-line, it comes back to our health and quality of life. Another issue with recycled material is that, unless it gets repelletised, which would take more energy and costs, it comes in irregular chunks and particles which mostly clogs the moulding equipment obliging an operator to baby-sit the machine, making the whole thing costly and… wrong… another reason why recycled material is avoided… but, once-more we did our homework and is possible to regrind models after they did their job. Last, but not least, one of our main expertise is in processing any kind of polymer, including silicone, high temperature polymers, hard, highly viscous, watersoluble polymers, Soft polymers, highly filled, conductive, etc… So, is possible do add as little as possible of any special polymer in order to cope with recycled materials deficiencies. What we have in mind now, is find the way to sustainably bring such technology as close as possible to the trash. To develop tools and models allowing to trigger an economy in those places where the sea strands back our trash able to transform plastic trash into a resource. That’s why the motion of our deposition head is fostered to a simple, robust and cost-effective robotic arm. Next destination, make sustainable the on-site transformation of bottles, caps, tanks transforming them into things like bins for collecting more plastic trash or recycling nets into system for skimming plastic from the sea, but this is far from being enough. Make cool (I’m probably the only one feeling it’s already cool), safe and practical to collect trash from parks or beaches may look difficult, but why not to try with new tools and new teams…? What about making it a business, what about making those places nice again and attractive for modern Gauguin of the design? Our idea is to help designers to explore and to govern the unpredictability of recycled materials and to transform fortuity in peculiarity, defects into fingerprint, developing tools able to govern and make repeatable the discovery. Those machines designed by Dave Hakkens and his crew, already being produced in remote parts of the globe, mining scrapyard’s resources, the little Preciousplastic’s bazar, creating a self-growing global marketplace, those initiatives shows that it can work, what we should do now is to increase safety and performance on technology and market value and diffusion for the products. Here is the call for designers, we take technology and you take the role to transform “cute little… things” into “cool and desirable masterpieces” in order to bring market and money to those whom has the more access to trash. Those with access to trash will always have the cheapest materials and the manufacturing will move from dirty beach to dirty beach till they will all be clean. Your role is to design products that looks cool and works great despite it’s made of trash. Feeling guilty doesn’t help, time is going… going… gone! So let’s work on new paradigms 4/7 for those whom harvest trash on the beach and give new life to design… Let’s make guiltless that precious plastic!