Precious Plastic Academy

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Precious Plastic Academy Advanced

Developed by Netherlands-based Parley collaborator (and all-around genius inventor) Dave Hakkens, the Precious Plastic Academy is both a practical knowledge base for building and a cultural tool to change the way society perceives plastic.

 

This course will explore some of the incredible opportunities for creativity in a material most people see as garbage – waste plastic. By reusing it locally, you can help reduce plastic pollution flowing into our oceans and lower the demand for new virgin plastic. Applied globally, creative recycling can transform a problem into a solution, helping provide better livelihoods for people around the world.

 

We believe that collaboration is stronger than competition and that the plastic problem can only be solved collectively. Once you’ve gone through everything, you’ll be empowered and ready to start your own recycling workspace anywhere in the world.

Precious Plastic x Parley

As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” If we adopted this mindset towards plastic, we could transform waste into useful, beautiful things.
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The Basics of Plastic

Thermoplastic vs. thermoset? PET vs PVC? The world of plastics – and recycling – is confusing. Get to know the basics with Parley collaborator Dave Hakkens.
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Safety & Fumes

Safety is a huge topic when working with plastic, it’s extremely important to take the right precautions. We’ll walk through the dangers of fume exposure and which plastics are unsafe to work with.
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Nerdy on Plastic

When did plastic arrive in our society, how did it grow from a small niche material to being available in every corner of the world?
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Intro to Building Machines

We will start with some simple machines to help you process raw recycled plastics. These include shredders, injectors, compressors, and extrusion machines.
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The Shredder Machine

The shredder is the backbone of Precious Plastic, it allows you to shred plastic into small flakes.
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The Extrusion Machine

Find out how you can (technically) be recycling 24/7 using an extrusion machine!
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The Injection Machine

The injection machine has a quick production output with high precision, while it takes a little bit more effort in the beginning with designing and making a mold, you’ll be amazed at what you can create.
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The Compression Machine

The compression machine is basically an electric kitchen oven to heat the plastic, and a compression mechanism (a carjack) to apply pressure to your mould. Learn more in this section.
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Shredder Pro: Overview

Learn the pros and cons of going Pro!
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Shredder Pro: Build It

So you want to shred plastic? Cool! This is the Pro - it's more robust, advanced and productive.
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Shredder Pro: Run It

Congrats, you've built a Shredder Pro! Time to chop some plastic. In this section you will learn how to do this, the settings to use, and an ideal workflow.
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Extrusion Pro: Overview

Learn the pros and cons of going Pro!
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Extrusion Pro: Build It

This is a stronger, bigger and more robust version of our V3 extruder so if you are looking for serious production and have advanced milling and lathing skills, continue on!
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Extrusion Pro: Run It

Hooray! You build yourself an Extruder Pro! Let's have some fun and make some beams and bricks. In this section we will explain how to do this, which temperatures to use, and how the workflow should be.
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Sheetpress: Overview

Learn the pros and cons of going Pro!
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Sheetpress: Build It

A very exciting machine that can recycle big amounts of plastic on a daily basis. And everytime you open up the machine it's a little suprise how the sheet comes out. But ok. Focus. We need to build it first.
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SHEETPRESS: RUN IT

Hooray! You built yourself a Sheetpress! Let's have some fun and make sheets. In this section you will learn how to do this, which temperatures to use, and how the workflow should be.
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Our worldwide Collection System

The first step in recycling and upcycling plastic is the proper collection of high-quality products. Find out how we can build local collection and education systems.
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Create: Overview

Our guide will help you properly melt your plastics. Take a look at what you can make from that "waste".
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Create: Good Design

Recycled plastic is a valuable and versatile material.
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Create: Finished Objects

So we’ve gone through how to use plastic, how to build and use the machines, and how to make products - a crucial part of this process is finishing your products off.
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Create: Injection Molds

The most versatile machine to use moulds with is the Injection machine, but it has it's limits. Nothing to be afraid of! It's just important knowing your design restraints going on.
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Create: How To's

This tool is the heart of this collaborative community. We rely on all of you to gain knowledge from us and then share your learnings back, that way we are all solving the problem of plastic waste together!
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Business Tools: Action Plan

As you create a local recycling program to reimagine plastics into precious items, use these business tools to help your system succeed.
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Business Tools: Workspace Calculator

This tool will help you to understand the feasibility of starting a workspace, how much money you need to start, and how many products and services you need to sell per month in order to be profitable.
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Business Tools: Business Plan Template

This template is an easy to follow framework for your business plan and consists of different sections to work through everything you need to get started.
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Workspace: Overview

Follow our step-by-step guides and recommendations to help you plan the various elements of your plastic recycling space.
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Workspace: Shredder

Ok, you want to set up a shredder workspace. Fantastic! The shredder workspace is a crucial element of the Precious Plastic universe. Find out the mains steps to set up this workspace.
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Workspace: Extrusion

The Extrusion Workspace is a great choice to recycle lots of plastic waste into beams or bricks in a continuous process that is fairly straight forward and easy to learn.
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Workspace: Injection

You want to set up an Injection Workspace. Smart move! It is fairly cheap to start and you can make very precise and finished products ready for your customers.
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Workspace: Sheetpress

So you want to set up an Sheetpress workspace. That's exciting right!? Your sheets can be used to create all sorts of useful, wonderful objects – or just look arty hanging on a wall.
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Workspace: Mix

Ok, you want to set up a Mix workspace. Super. We're going to walk you through how to learn about plastic, build the machines and set up the space to create wonderful objects from plastic waste.
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Workspace: Collection Point

Collection Points are such a crucial element of the Precious Plastic Universe as they are the "catchers" of all that plastic waste out there waiting to be recycled. Learn how to set up this workspace.
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Universe: Explained

The Precious Plastic Universe is designed so people can work on their own tasks but then collaborate locally. See how you can set up your own Space and join the universe!
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Universe: Style Guides

Precious Plastic is a global Open-Source community. So we have individuals, groups and us in the headquarters making graphic material like posters, website and stickers. Learn more!
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Universe: Share back

Share back with the Precious Plastic community!
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Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions, check this section! We try to answer anything that has come up frequently to make this a better experience.
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Download Kits

These kits contain everything you need to get started: blueprints, posters, labels, CAD models etc.. It's fun. Have a look to see which fits you.
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How to Support

Some ways to support Precious Plastic.
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