I’m not a terrible fan of plastic, unless I come up against a product that really is better made of plastic than an alternative. A toothbrush head comes to mind.
That, and the world is already filled with plastic waste. How might we make something of it?
OK, the RepRap (Replicating Rapid prototyper) is something the hacker kids love: a device that prints three-dimensional items — layer by ultrathin layers — and might use waste thermoplastic to make new items.
Sure, the current plastic-for-everything economy won’t work with these, but that’s my point. This could be option when we do need plastic tools, and where we it makes sense to treat it as a valuable resource.
See this Open Source Ecology article for details and an interesting video
