Portland's Plastic Problem: Recycle

It's that time of the week to take out garbage and recycling to be picked up, and you collect everything to be put in their respective cans.  Glass is in its own bin, plastic is being recycled, but wait!  You notice someone has thrown away small plastic bottles, many plastic bottle caps, and plastic clams shells!  Then you remember that Waste Management won't accept these items as they clog their machines.  You cringe as you throw all that plastic in the green garbage trash can, thinking to yourself there has to be another way to recycle that plastic.  Isn't there something you can do to make a difference, or do you sit by and do nothing?

I want to properly recycle plastic and reduce the amount that is being thrown away.  I will build each machine designed by Precious Plastic; extruder, injector, compressor, and shredder.

The folks at Precious Plastic have opened up the world of recycling plastic to the people who can make the biggest difference--us. Their plans are made available free of charge, you just have to acquire the necessary parts, then build them--all for not a lot of money.

Portland, being so eco-friendly, has quite a poor plastic recycling program, as they only accept a few types of plastics.  Most of the plastic then is being thrown away or left in our public spaces for someone else to deal with.

These machines will allow anyone who builds them to be able to recycle most types of plastic practically free.

After I build each machine for myself, I plan on using them to raise awareness about the issue by showing people examples of some of the things that can be built with the recycled plastic, share Precious Plastic's generosity with others by helping others make these machines themselves, and give back to the Precious Plastic online community by sharing ideas and lessons learned in their forums.