Precious Plastics is an international community of people looking to localize plastic recycling and rethink plastic waste as a creative material. Through open-source files, educational resources, and discussion boards; Precious Plastics empowers people to collaborate and take initiative in their community. Founded by Dave Kakkens in the Netherlands in 2021, Precious Plastics services four open-source machine designs: Injector, extruder, shredder, and compressor. The shredding machine grinds plastics, while the injector, extruder, and compressor machines are used to re-shape plastics. Precious Plastic is one of four global projects sponsored by the One Army Foundation. 

Precious Plastic provides open-source designs for recycling machines, helpful tutorials on how to work with plastic, and documentation to start a business within the plastic recycling industry. Their resources are designed for international application and are free to share!

We are a community point within the Precious Plastic Universe. Our goals are to connect fellow recyclers with tools, engineers, and resources to increase recycling within the CT River Valley region. The team joined the Precious Plastic community in Fall of 2021.

We currently recycle plastic #2 - HDPE. We are exploring methods to recycle other plastic types.

We collect post-consumer plastic waste. Once our machines are working, the plastic will be cleaned, sorted, and shredded into flakes. These flakes will then be used in the extruder to create filament.

The extruder and shredder machines are currently hosted in the Center for Design and Fabrication at Smith College. They intended to be hosted at The Hive in a few years.

We have been working on the machines since Fall 2021. 

We use open-sourced guides of the Lyman/Mulier designs.

Check out Get Involved where we have information about:

• Precious Plastic Universe

• CT River Valley Maker Spaces

• Smith College Team

We are currently in the stages of developing the machines and outreach to community partners. We will update with more information.

We are currently based at the Center for Design and Fabrication and Design Thinking Initiative.

In the near future, the machines will be permanently hosted at the Hive.