Project: Recycle

@P:HC we think that trash scars our planet for generations, let’s use it to build our future.

One of humanity’s most significant advancements is our ability to create, but in our progress, we’ve created a huge problem: the disposal of our past items. P: HC looks to recycle our garbage into new uses and new methods for producing more sustainable products. We plan to make using accessible technology a tool for equipping people with the means to design, share and build innovative things.

We live in an age where there are so many things. We need to make better things worth using, products that are designed better start to end. This means incorporating more recycled materials into our manufacturing and planning for product life after use. By developing a policy framework for better products while making product design more accessible, we can create less waste and better use of the things in our lives.

noun_cycle_2274599

Some Ideas We're Thinking About:

Trash Markets,

Turning Garbage into Commodities

Plastics, metal and other base materials can all be recycled. At P: HC, we think we should make it better. By localizing the production of stock 3-D printing material from recycled trash, we can lower transportation costs, create local jobs, and produce the base material for the next generation of products, without taking from nature unnecessarily.

Making Recycling a Habit Takes Work

Recycling is cool, but compositing is better. Unless your city is super progressive, this isn’t a common reality. At P: HC, we look to encourage and design composting programs in cities as part of their regular services, but that’s not the end of it – public buildings and private-public spaces should composite too, so it’s never a choice between responsibility and convenience.

When you Bring the Factories to You,

It Saves A World of Waste.

Making 3-D printing stock is one thing, putting it to good use is an opportunity for something more. At P: HC we think that if we coordinate with universities, companies and governments, we can create centres in which the public can design new products and buy designs from companies to be printed on community machines. This is the next step in the manufacturing revolution, it should be in every city and every neighbourhood.

Project: Recycle = Technology + Transformation + Creativity

Why is this important?

Scroll down to learn The Quick Facts!

  • The amount of waste is disproportionately produced. The majority of the world’s waste comes from urban areas – lifestyles are known to affect our trash output. When we adjust how we design our cities, we can reduce the number of things we throw out
  • There is a positive correlation between affluence and waste production, as well as between urban and rural residence – we can design zero-waste lifestyles regardless of where we live. We need to create closed-loop systems in every consumption aspect of our lives
  • By 2025 global garbage production rate will double – unabated we’re going to be living in and around our trash, this is a problem we need to address before we see it
  • Rates of garbage production are estimated to rise to over 11 million tonnes per day by 2100 (in a current rate growth scenario)
  • OECD countries produce around 1.75 million tonnes of waste per day (this is expected to increase until 2050
  • China’s solid waste is expected to increase from 520,550 tonnes per day to 1.4 million tonnes per day in 2025
  • Developing nations are increasing their rate of garbage relative to their economic growth and productivity – cooperating at the urban level we can mitigate our trash out while helping developing nations solve their growth impacts

Information Sources: