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It all started in 2014 when Dave Hakkens, then a student at the Eindhoven Design Academy, released his design for a plastic recycling machine to the world for free.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The aim was to make plastic recycling available to local communities at scale by lowering the technological threshold for success with easily replicable and repairable machines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That year, three people independently replicated Hakkens\u2019 machine. Within a short time, the Precious Plastic project was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Teach a man to fish\u2019<\/p>\n
Everything the project makes – from machines, tutorials and tools to product designs – is shared freely online under open-source licenses, enabling anyone, anywhere, to start a plastic recycling<\/strong><\/a> project. Machines can also be purchased and shipped globally, or, for the DIY-savvy, replicated, repaired and improved upon with off-the-shelf materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n Four iterations of the original machines later, Precious Plastic is now a global community of more than 2000 registered plastic recycling initiatives across 56 countries. Community members not only tweak and improve upon the machines, but are also setting up business and infrastructure for plastic recycling while raising awareness locally.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, what we wanted was more plastic recycling,\u201d says Jerry de Voos, who joined Precious Plastic in 2017 while on a gap year between his Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s in Industrial Design to help develop version three of the machines.<\/p>\n \u201cOften, we had an idea from what others had done or what we thought the community would benefit from,\u201d explains de Voos. \u201cThen we\u2019d seek funding and when we were happy with the results, we would share them online.\u201d<\/p>\n Plastic waste remains an intractable problem<\/p>\n By 2050, 99 per cent<\/strong><\/a> of all birds will have eaten plastic.<\/p>\n Plastic waste remains one of the biggest environmental issues facing the planet. I<\/a>t\u2019s estimated that less than 9 per cent<\/strong><\/a> of all plastic is recycled, with the rest ending up in landfills, nature or the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n The consequences are particularly felt by wildlife and vulnerable ecosystems, with the actual impact of issues like microplastics only recently becoming evident. For the first time in 2025, an Italian study<\/strong><\/a> found microplastics in several women\u2019s ovaries, raising concerns over their impact on fertility rates.<\/p>\n Though the technology for plastic recycling is out there, the expansion of the recycling industry remains stagnant. More often than not, recycled plastics rely on infrastructure that remains immature or non-existent in many countries. Virgin plastics manufacturing also remains significantly cheaper than high-quality recycling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Add to this an increase in energy and labour costs, and what you\u2019re left with is a recycling sector under pressure, with investors unwilling to bet on the growth of the sector as it is.<\/p>\n But rather than wait for the established market players to turn plastic recycling into a viable business proposition, Precious Plastic decided to lower the threshold for new players to enter the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPrecious Plastic was one of the first projects where you could have small, personal solutions to bigger challenges and thereby make people feel like they could contribute to solving the issue,\u201d explains de Voos. It has also shared best-practice business tools for those wanting to make a living out of plastic recycling.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, several startups and businesses around the world are scaling plastic recycling at the local level.<\/p>\n