A hub for plastic recycling between circular economy and education. Circool was born from the collaboration between professionals IlVespaio and Wau, a network of associations. The initiative revolves around machines to shred plastic waste and recycle it, built thanks to Plastic Precious. The project, conceived by the Dutch Dave Hakkens who made them available in open source mode, allows you to build small and cheap machines. Two of them will be present at Fa ‘la causa, the national fair of critical consumption and sustainable lifestyles (Milan, April 29-May 1).
Circool is a real recycling hub, born from the collaboration between We are urban! Milan and Il Vespaio, the team of creatives who deal with ecodesign. A space of over one hundred square meters, inside the Lido of Milan, entirely dedicated to the circular economy in which to give new life to plastic waste by transforming them into urban furniture objects to be made available to the city: chairs, tables, benches that can be installed in schools and in the offices of member associations or in parks and public places identified with the Municipality of Milan. In addition to the creative and productive side, there will be meetings and awareness-raising projects on environmental issues specifically aimed at children with workshops and ad hoc meetings. The collaboration with We are urban is fundamental! Milan: the volunteers of the association will regularly take care of collecting the plastic. Any waste will be washed, separated by type of plastic and finally chopped with the shredder.
Macchine in open source
The project revolves around two small machines which are a plastic shredder and an injector. The latter allows you to heat the plastic and inject it into a mold and thus obtain a recycled plastic object. The machines were built on the basis of the open source project available online developed by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens. “He had an intuition – says Alessandro Garlandini, co-founder of IlVespaio, which was born as an informal network is turning into an association – Since plastic recycling is the prerogative of large companies and collection is the task of governments, he wanted to create cheap machines, small and easy to build and instead of patenting them, he made them available to everything ». Thus an international community was created that uses them for small productions or to improve education on these issues.
In schools with corporate sponsorship
Since 2008 ilVespaio, a network of professionals who deal with eco-design and sustainability at 360 degrees, has taken machines wherever the idea of recycling can be spread. “Recently the companies that sponsor projects in schools have increased, not only large but also small companies that are interested in supporting these projects in their territories” adds the designer who is also involved in corporate communication projects on these issues and reuse of packaging. From 2020 with the machines of Precious Plastic Il Vespaio organizes educational courses in schools on plastic recycling and awareness raising events for families, adults and companies. Furthermore, with Precious Plastic machines it produces Taca Lì, a recycled plastic joint that allows you to connect pipes to create circular temporary installations.