There are many people around the South East Queensland area and indeed Australia who seem eager and interested to “do something” regarding plastics recycling, although everyone has their own real or imagined barrier to entry often relating to either money or expertise.
In researching and working towards getting my own workshop up and running I found that the “do it all yourself” approach has had me constantly creating new self-made obstacles by constantly expanding on what I want to achieve which inversely means I never get enough completed to do anything meaningful.
For example, to make a shredder I decided it would be a great idea to build a CNC Laser cutter in order to make the parts cost effectively from scrap materials.
Why am I telling you this and why should you care?
Great question and seeing as I haven’t lost you yet I shall endeavour to answer, while at the same time hopefully growing your enthusiasm and getting you to jump aboard a great project full of potential.
Firstly, doing it all alone is both an unbelievable time sink as well as wasting the opportunity to enable others to contribute to plastics recycling or indeed recycling as a whole, in a way that suits them. I also recycle scrap metals and e-waste so the going it alone approach has also meant that the work I had already been doing has been suffering while I try to get plastics recycling moving.
As for your reason to get excited about my story is that I am currently going through the process of creating a not for profit Company so that I can bring together the interested parties in South East Queensland and over time Australia so that every individual can contribute as much or as little to the recycling process as suits them.
If I have pricked your ears up a little now I will let you know a very rough/loose version of my vision, what milestones will be required to achieve the vision and how you can join in and help.
The vision for the not for profit is to reduce all forms of landfill and pollution through actively collecting and processing recyclable materials, researching new uses or processes and creating a hub for likeminded community members to contribute in meaningful ways that suit them.
Milestones:
• Precious Plastics post calling for expressions of interest to join in and help will hopefully get the whole project moving faster as they say “many hands make light work”
• Continue processing scrap metals and E-Waste (and collecting the plastics from them) to fund the building of plastics processing machines.
• Keep an eye out for Government grants etc. which will help purchase/upgrade equipment, get our message to a broader audience etc.
• Receive bank funding to purchase/lease an industrial space to both allow easier access to equipment for all involved as well as creating brand presence to further push the recycling message.
• Expand to other areas around Australia where interest in recycling is strong yet individuals have barriers to entry to recycle without a group support.
• Grow to a large enough Australian presence that we can process (as opposed to just collect) the plastics that councils etc. wont touch, for example ABS-FR.
Of course this post does not represent the fully fleshed out plans and ideas, it isn’t supposed to, the whole point of this post is to gather interested parties with whom I can further discuss with you how you wish to contribute to indeed what we might be able to do for you (for example if you are only trolling the forums because you want cheap materials for your commercial product).
Feel free to ask questions, make comments etc. here and/or PM me if you would like to become active in helping see this project actively become successful.
If you aren’t interested in donating your time yet would be interested in helping fund the project you are also more than welcome to reach out and have a discussion.
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