- We wanna empower as many people as possible
to start recycling,
to start to make a living through recycling, you know,
with the creativity that human beings are known for.
We wanna really try and get creative
at coming up with different solutions
to tackle the plastic waste problem.
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- We're taking something that is a blight
on the local environment and we're giving people
new economic opportunities,
maybe supplementary incomes, maybe main incomes,
and giving them an opportunity to actually do something good
with something that had previously just been overwhelming
their local group community.
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The extrusion machine allows us to make
really nice plant pots and other objects
in that sort of similar vein.
We've also got an injection machine now
so we can make small sort of injected, molded products.
We also have a sheet press as well
so we're able to make large-form products
about 50 centimeters by 50 centimeters.
And that would allow us to make floor tiles, ceiling tiles,
and also wall decorations.
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- The main issue is the fact that knowledge tends to be
very closed and behind patents
and in the hands of very few players.
On top of that, if you wanna start recycling in 2021,
you probably need an investment of like
many millions of dollars.
And you can easily understand how very few people
can do that, whereas we see really the people
as being real the driving force of this.
We wanna empower as many people as possible
to take on recycling, to take it onto their shoulders,
to tackle this plastic waste problem.
And how we do that? Open knowledge and cheap tools.
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- [Dominic] Gradually over the years,
we built it up to a team of volunteers
who would contribute their time on weekends,
helping us make products, going to fairs and festivals
and things like that.
But now we have a team of five people,
so dedicated people who work with communities,
people who organize events and also do school workshops
and university workshops as well.
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I think the important point about this
is that it's not going to tackle a city's plastic problem.
Our machines are very low scale
and so really, as we said,
it's all about that educational awareness
and trying to change people's views of plastic trash.
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- [Mattia] With all the plastic that is produced
and is out there, we gotta do something about it, right?
And plastic recycling is one of the things that you can do.
Plastic is still a very valuable material,
it has a lot of value, a lot of great qualities,
and it's up to us, it's a design challenge
to make sure that we design plastic in such a way
that it doesn't become a problem for the environment.