A Plastic Plate Press

Abstract

This project deals with two problems, which in combination ask for a single solution. The first problem being plastic waste accumulation in low resource areas and the second being that production and construction materials in these low-resource areas are often very expensive. When these two problems are combined, an opportunity arises to transform plastic waste into qualitative production/construction materials.
This is something that is already being realised by numerous organisations all over the world, however, in the market of bottom-up recycling, multiple machine designs are available, but a plate press is still lacking. Therefore, the assignment
that is set for this project is to:
“Design a product for maker-spaces in low-resource areas, that can transform plastic waste into qualitative plastic plate construction material, and that can be produced locally and operated by locals.”

While designing a new product for low-resource settings the challenges are to make it affordable, to design for local production to stimulate the local
economy, to ensure that it can operate in the local infrastructure, to make it easy to maintain and repair with local resources and that local staff can operate it.

For this project, it is most important to find an affordable and accessible solution that can be realised with minimal technologies and readily available materials, and that is adaptable to multiple different contexts and resources.
Therefore the design is focussed on functionality, embodiment, and production, while topics like user interaction and implementation are only treated superficially.