The Precious Plastic initiative has grown from being a graduation project initiated by Dave Hakkens (Design Academy Eindhoven, NL) to a project that is recently acknowledged across the globe. Hakkens and his team designed several low-cost machines for plastic recycling – or let's better say upcycling – using basic tools and materials. Sharing technical drawings and blueprints online, this information brings recycling plastic closer to communities, who now have the power to create the machines by themselves and turn old plastic products into new, creative objects or even raw material that can be used in production of other plastic products. A group of NTSI researchers support the project by giving access to interested community members to the universities infrastructure, and organising educational workshops e.g. for schools. The team works on creating the plastic upcycling machines (shredder, extruder, injection, compression), and is also interested in using the recycled plastic as a ressource for the lab's prototypes, as well as the development of new products.

• Shredder: Plastic is shredded into flakes which will be used in the other machines to create new plastic products.
• Extrusion Machine: Plastic flakes are inserted into the hopper and extruded into a line of plastic.
• Injection Molding machine: Plastic flakes are heated and injected into a mold.
• Compressor: Plastic is heated inside an oven and slowly pressed into a mold using a carjack. This machine is well suited for making large and more solid objects.

Machine visualisations by Precious Plastics, 2017

The students were inspired by Mattia Bernini, one of the core members of Precious Plastic team. Mattia visited NTSI-Lab in March 2017 to conduct a workshop on the Precious Plastic project. Students brainstormed possible new products, developed ways to efficiently use the machines and discussed their ideas with Mattia. This directed their actions and solidified the way forward with the execution of their project.

The students’ goal is not only to build the machines that already exist, but to potentially improve them by experimenting with other ways of using plastic and discovering the true potential of old and used plastic.