Video Presentation

Plastic bottles are a major source of the kind of waste and pollution that is destroying our global ecosystem. Most plastic bottles are made out of PET plastic, a material that also works well as filament for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printers. This project seeks to create a unified device to both collect plastic bottles and process the collected bottles into filament. This device is designed to be placed in locations like food courts and cafeterias where people can easily and conveniently dispose of their plastic bottles. Once a deposited bottle enters the processing chamber, a hollow needle pierces the cap, and heated pressurized air is pumped into the bottle. At the same time, air is pumped out of the processing chamber through pores on the inner walls, vacuum forming the bottle by sucking it to the inner walls of the chamber, which are specially shaped to mold the bottle into a tight helix of filament. The study is still ongoing, but the main hope is for the device to be low cost and low maintenance; simply plug in the device, allow bottles to be collected as people dispose of their drinks, and occasionally return to retrieve the new filament spools. Ultimately, this project has the potential to reduce SRU's carbon footprint and significantly lower the cost of operating the 3D printers on campus.