We went from a team of 2 and ¾ to a team of 39 in the space of 1 and ½ months. And as you can imagine it’s been, well, chaos. Lots of people, tens of nationalities, cultures, ideas, missions, believes and projects. Much fun. No fights, no dramas. So far 🙂

Below you can have a look at the latest monthly news for some insights on our experiences over the past month.

For the month ahead, December 2018, the plan is to finish up some work so far, and focus. Clear the minds and tame the chaos. With our in-house team of dedicated volunteers, we plan to fine tune the processes and structures of the Precious Plastic operation. Less micro-projects running simultaneously and more men (and girl) power for each major project. From now till Version 4 the major focus will be on the strictly necessary and must-have. If we’re left with some extra time we’ll dive into the other small ideas and projects picking our brains.

Logistically, December is going to be an interesting one. There’s people leaving here and there to celebrate Christmas, and some are simply out of time with their visas 👎(sucks). This means that we want to tie up the loose ends of the first three months, so that we can jump straight into the big tasks with the new year. We want to launch into full-on engineer mode, and tackle the machines.

Sound like something you can help with? We’ve just opened applications for a new round of machine builders, and developers to come and join us in our workspace here in Eindhoven. Check out the tasks that are open on https://next.preciousplastic.com That’s you too, web-developers. Plenty to be done, in the world of plastic pollution!

Below you can find the December action plan for our team. Feel free to check out our progress in the forums, using the links provided, and make any comments or suggestions.

working on robotics to sort plastic

This month in the workspace:

– @brunowindt (our washing guy), @pauldufour (on dirty plastics), and @kaiyi are going to team up this month to work more on the washing process. On the topic of dirty plastic, we’re going to put pyrolysis aside for a while. It’s an area that we’re interested in, but no decision has been made about our position in the development of this technique.

– @cymek and @timslab will continue to smash it with the extruder

– @friedrich will spend the month on a prototype for his shredder developments

– @markbertbach & @jasonknight (Sheet press pros) will be working on their testphase machine

– @v-varella (sheet designer), @acoira (working until now on styrofoam), and @istvanborzas will be working on a library of techniques and examples of how to work with sheets.

– @charlotteallen will be finishing up research that she’s been working on with Louis, researching and testing with foils.

– @lagrenouille will be finalising his work on PET rope making

– @hbird will continue on robotics

– @dasjannis & @marinab will be pushing the limits of potato peels

in their bioplastic research

– @aliciaminnaard & @borbala will be working with clothing, for a research project related to the fashion industry and it’s alternatives.

This month in the studio:

For the studio, it’s a little more of a running process, but our development team will be really focussing down on one large platform that we are working towards as an end goal. It’s gradually materialising, and the concepts and ideas are being developed, tested and drafted. This is the focus of @saskiaathlene, @nparies, @be3nj, @chris-m-clarke, and @nzchicken.

We’ve already made great progress with a documentation tool, which should help the community to properly archive and record solid processes or techniques that they have developed with the machines, and with the material. This way, we can have a constant feedback look from the community, and a proper way to share our discoveries.

For the rest of us on the V4 team, we’ll be keeping things running. Orders to be made, food to be cooked, plants to be watered, receipts to be filed. Business as usual. Mattia’s in Morocco for a few weeks, we’re making plans for Christmas, and we’re all freezing our butts off.

See you in the month ahead 👋