Arjuna

Converting discarded plastic bottles into 3d printing filament .

I are trying to solve the problem of plastic pollution in the environment specifically pollution due to single use plastic bottles . Plastic pollution is a very protruding problem in my community as , discarded plastic can be found in lakes , unauthorised dumping sights and sometimes even on the streets in small clumps where they are not supposed to be . Factors which contribute to this problem are lack of awareness of proper disposing methods , lack of  recycling technologies and proper initiatives taken by the respective authorities to eliminate this problem .The consequences resulting from this problem are that the environment around the polluted zone is affected and which has a direct impact on human health and sanitation. The plastic pollutes the soil for a large period of time and it also collects water in monsoon which which can act as mosquito breeding grounds .If we look at large water bodies , plastic bottles cause harm to marine life and dislodge microplastics which is consumed by marine life which is then consumed by us hence again proving harmful to our health.

My solution converts discarded plastic bottles into 3d printing filament . The system first converts the plastic bottles into strips which can be fed into our main stage .While the plastic bottles are in the environment, they experience a lot of stresses whether it be thrown around or kicked or squished which overtime make its density non-uniform hence right after cutting the bottles into strips , the system use a novel sensor to measure density gradients in the plastic strips and compensate for it , in the future stages of the system . After going through the sensor , the strips and moved to the hotend which is just a heating block with a nozzle which shapes the strips into long , thin  cylindrical tubes .The system uses a puller mechanism , a stepper motor with a gear train , to pull the filament through all the stages .

I are targeting the lives of environmental workers as well as people from regions which posses large amounts of plastic wastes and also providing a means of employment in these areas. The government and respective authorities, overlook the demands for a clean environment and the faults in the system display themselves in the form of inconsistent waste disposal by authorities which the administration does not mend .

My team currently only consists of myself .I am a high schooler in India with experience in robotics and coding . I have previously had experience in developing a solution for my school which was related to waste management, I had built a trashcan which could detect wet and dry wastes and automatically dispose them into their respective bins hence reducing the margin of human error when disposing of trash. I gained a lot of knowledge about taking an idea and realistically implementing it in the real world .I have also been a part , as a volunteer, in environmental awareness camps held in my school in 2021 and 2022 and I have also been part of an initiative of my school that organises groups to clean the water bodies around our city of plastic wastes and other pollutants .I have also witnessed a large about of plastic wastes dispersed all around our city which is not cleaned by the authorities regularly, this is a problem near my locality as well where these patches of garbage can compromise sanitation.

We have had awareness camps hosted in our school by us and I have also via social work , helped to clean various water bodies around our city , these experiences are what have pushed me to move forward with this solution and to bring a change in the current system . I took my idea to National Creative Olympiad hosted in my city (Jamshedpur) and we recieved a lot of constructive criticism towards the design thinking as well as implementation and efficiency of this idea from people from all sectors .

Other systems that convert plastic bottles into 3d printing filament only incorporate mostly undamaged bottles or bottles which have not been exposed to the environment , but we , as we are extending this system , have also developed a novel sensor which consists of a hall effect sensor and a lever with a magnet attached at one end to which when the plastic strips passe from under the ball bearing attached at the other end of the lever , it moves the lever due to uneven densities and these minute movements can be recorded by observing the readings of the hall effect . Moreover we can use the filament produced from our system to build another similar setup that could be used to produce more systems which would produce filament from bottles hence possessing a positive feedback loop as most of the physical parts in our system are 3d printed .

My impact goals for this year and the next year are possibly to expand awareness about this solution and thus obtain help to expand on this project inorder to ensure that the system is implemented in the larger market , I have displayed my solution in National creative Olympiad held in our city and we received a lot of exposure as well as constructive criticism on our system .

Additive manufacturing is the basis of this solution along with various electronic components which contribute to the sensor and the hot end . The heart of the project , the sensor , uses a hall effect sensor which provides us a cheap but accurate method of measuring inconsistencies in the plastic strips .The major physical parts of the system are also fabricated via FDM technology.

My solution currently serves 2 people , me and my friend . My solution is relevant to all personale who use consumer based 3d printers and there were an estimated 2.2 million units of 3d printer sold in 2021 and this number is estimated to rise to 21.5 million by 2030 (Source: Grand view Research) . This conveys that with the market size increasing , sales would also increase in the longer run and hence it would eliminate more rogue plastic bottles from the environment . I project the market for us in India with 92.32 million dollars of market size of additive manufacturing industry already to be around 10,000 to 20,000 till next year as we would have to raise awareness towards it.

My current biggest barrier is not having enough experience with the wider market and not possessing the relevant knowledge on how to expand the solution in a sustainable manner .

I am currently not partnering with any organisation 

I currently do not have a structured business model , but the system would benefit the people whom I am serving by decreasing the plastic pollutants around their locality which compromise human health and would the small scale development of this system to be sold to consumers would provide economic opportunities to the people  .

I could turn up revenue by selling the produced 3d printing filament and kits for building this system at home which would appeal to the entire 3d printing market , which had an estimated 2.2 million customers as of 2018 .