UNclean Plastics

Project

268281

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

UNclean Plastics

Full concept/idea title

Description

The project addresses the topic of pollution caused by the pandemic and encourages a critical, creative debate. The toothbrush is entirely 3D printed from “recycled mask filament”. Choosing this rather complicated and difficult manufacturing process, shows the suitability of the material for other recycling approaches to be implemented in the future.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

The worldwide production and consumption of facemasks alone leads to an additional plastic waste of more than 584 million tons per year. With hardly any recycling efforts huge amounts of plastic waste are ending up in landfills and the oceans. “Unclean Plastics” addresses this highly socially relevant topic and encourages a critical, creative debate about the current use of resources. Specifically, the project focuses on the consumption and cycle chains of Covid 19 protective products such as FFP2 masks with the aim to not only create new approaches using additive production methods to reduce/recycle the resulting waste quantities but to also work on the psychological characteristics of those products through design intervention.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

One key objective of our project is to develop new recycled materials and ideas to implement them. It is important to prove the value of such recycled materials and show their potential use cases for other approaches. There is a lacking awareness among a large part of the population that disposable masks are pure plastic waste after use, for which there are barely any recycling approaches so far. The project focuses on addressing these topics tries to encourage a critical debate in order to achieve more public awareness for the existing pollution.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

The monomaterial toothbrush was developed within the project as a symbolic product and is printed entirely using the recycled Polypropylene filament made from used and production waste masks. Producing an everyday product such as a toothbrush entirely from recycled facemasks aims to create a strong contrast from contaminated waste to hygiene products. The confrontation is supposed to spark a debate on cleanness and disgust, as well as raising awareness about the use and value of resources.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

Masks as well as toothbrushes are daily used products. Everybody has them and uses them frequently. For that reason it is possible to reach many people with our project. 3D printing has become a very affordable and common manufacturing process during the last few years. Many people nowadays have their own 3D printer at home and are enabled to produce parts or entire products at their home by themself. Those people could use the developed recycled mask filament and take part in the idea.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

Material research and the experimentation with different extrusion methods were a major part of the project. The production of consistent 3D printable filament represented a big challenge. We tested different mixtures with varying ratios of recycled polypropylene from used or production waste facemasks and pure polypropylene until we managed to manufacture filament made entirely from masks. The 3D printing with the new filament required a lot of testing and overcoming of many problems to achieve good printing results.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

Our goal in the next steps is to develop solutions for plastic waste, but not only by recycling as well as finding new 3d printable materials witch could be biobased and degradebal to not even creating Problem that exists longer then we do. For this we would like to improve our workshop with adding new extrusion machines and 3D printers which would enable us to experiment more and find new solutions for new materials. With each new material and production method also come new aesthetics we would like to explore. We also want to share our knwledge and experience with other people, for example from our university, the Bauhaus University Weimar, in workshops or people from all over the world over social media to raise awareness and to find new solutions togther.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.