 Hey, my name is Joseph and welcome to Monthly News number 54. This is where we recap what's been happening around One Army, our global community of people and projects working on environmental issues. Let's start off talking about precious plastic, which is our project that's all about fighting the plastic waste problem around the world. So we just got back from Lagos, Nigeria, where we helped set up a sheep press workspace in partnership with a local startup. You saw some clips in the beginning of this video about that, but I'm not going to talk too much about it because we have a full video coming out in the next few weeks. And you might be wondering, what's the sort of benefit when you guys do these onsite partnership projects? Well, it actually plays a huge role in sustaining ourselves as a team, as well as steering development for the community. So the way it works is that an organization somewhere around the world, they see a plastic waste problem in their community, and then they come to us and they say, hey, can you guys help us start a precious plastic workspace? So we say yes, depending on the conditions. And then we help pull together the project planning expertise, the machine's molds, and then do the onsite training with them to help them get started. It also affords the opportunity to do some iterative developments on the machines and even sometimes making a whole new product. And then we can turn around and share these open source with the community. And this really keeps us as the design team really rooted in the problems that people are facing on the ground. So let me tell you a little bit how this works in practice. So over the last few months, we've been working on a project with the UNHCR, which is the United Nations Refugee Development Agency, on a project in Tindufe, Algeria. And this project involves a washing system, which we've been working on, as well as a shredder basic. So we've been doing some iterations and development there. So let me show you what we've been up to. Hello. Hello. Tell me who you are and what you're working on. My name is Carolina, and I'm from Chile, and I'm working on the new version of the shredder. Awesome. So the main motivation behind redesigning this shredder, and what was the biggest challenge? So the main reason and motivation why we decided to redesign this shredder was to be able to make it ready to be C certified. And as well, one of the biggest challenges was to make it, of course, ready to be C certified, but at the same time try to keep the same kind of essence of the precious plastic machines where you can still see how it works, how like, yeah, basically the core of the machine and it's keeping its essence without hiding too much components, but still keeping it safe. Great. And can you walk me through the main changes between this model of the shredder and the previous? Okay. So first we work on the safety components of the machine. As you can see, the hopper still stays pretty much the same as how it was before, but now we added this lid. So basically this lid protects you from putting your fingers into the place and taking the risk of fretting your fingers. So then what we added to this lid was the safety switch, which basically if the lid is open, the machine will fully be off. So you won't be able to shred with the lid open. And then once you close it, it activates the switch. So then that means now you can shred. So the only way you can shred is with the lid closed. Then we have the components that protect all the moving parts, such as the steering, the coupling and the reducer. So you cannot access to them while the machine is running. Also we protected the blades from the bottom as well. So then you have, if in case you want to shred without a sieve, you have a funnel. So you cannot access the blades from the bottom either. Also all the other changes we did was the shredder box. So as you might remember before, it was welded and it was not fully made out of laser cut part. So now it's fully made out of laser cut part, it's bolted. And as well we changed the shaft. So now it's bigger. So of course it's stronger. Also another change we did was the frame. So now it's much wider, so it's much more stable. So the machine cannot fall backwards or to any side. And also as well we included some feet. So then you can screw the machine to the floor to make sure that it will not move while shredding because of the vibration or anything. Also another change we did was the electronics. So one of the main components we included now was an overload protection to protect the motor in case you put any big piece or anything. So we make sure we're never going to damage our motor and overload it very often. And as well as you can see, if you want to come closer. Now the way we wire the components, it's much more clean, it's much more organized so that anyone that want to make any kind of maintenance or work on it can easily understand it. Perfect. Can we see the shredder run? Yes. On. Plastic. We open the copper and as you can see I cannot make it work at all. So now we put the plastic, we close it, now we can make it run. Yes, and along with some other people we've been working on the prototype of the washing system. Cool. And what's the sort of main design mission behind this machine? So this machine is designed for the Algeria project where we're in a water-constructed environment, of course with the Sahara Desert and our mission was to wash shredded plastic and be able to reuse the water as many times as possible. So we needed a closed-loop water system for this. Perfect. And can you show me like step-by-step how it works? Yeah. So to start off we put the shredded plastic in one of these perforated food containers. They are an industry standard so easy to come by. And what we do then is we put it in the main washing tank. So the way this works now is that we are filling up the water tank with the high-pressure nozzles. The water level rises and in the meantime all the debris gets blown off of the shreds and then the dirty water can overflow into the filtration system in the back. So the main cleaning mechanisms then are these pressure washer nozzles? Yes. Is that right? Yes. Okay. And this is kind of blowing the plastic around in there. Yes. Okay. Cool. So that's the wash tank. So what happens to the water after the plastic is washed? What happens to the water? Yeah. So I already mentioned that we wanted to reuse the water. So we need to filter it and that happens in multiple steps. So the first step is this simple filter system that we call the grease trap. This works on the principle of oil and greases floating on top of water. So it just skims off the oil and then the microplastics that are floating also get caught in here and after that it's going to the reserve tank. Okay. In the reserve tank there is these two white hoses coming in. This is a sand filter pump and the sand filter is just circulating the water through here and filtering everything out that is bigger than a grain of sand. So that already leaves very clean water that we can then use again for the washing process. Excellent. And can we see it run a little bit? Yes, of course. So how long does like a full process take? Like the full cycle takes 15 to 20 minutes. Let's give you an example of the cleanliness. I've got these samples. This is how it goes in dirty and as you can see on the shreds there's all this sand and other debris on it and this is how it comes out. So if you look on the shreds there's no sand and no debris on it anymore, no sticky oils. Got it. Thank you so much. No problem. So you might be wondering, where can I find these developments that you guys are doing? And that question brought up a few other problems that we've been having concerning development around the community. So first of all, yes, we have this problem of doing, we're doing some iterative developments. Where should we share this information? And ideally it would be in the download kit, but the download kit needs to align with the academy and that often goes with a build video for the machines, for example. And that's quite a heavy lift and it's not something you want to do each time you're iterating on the machines. So we needed a place that was a bit more flexible, a bit more lightweight. And secondly, there's quite some confusion in the community surrounding the versioning of the machines. So for example, the shredder pro, a lot of people refer to this as the V4 shredder. If you iterate on this design, is it then the 4.1, but really we publish this as the 0.1 because it was the first shredder pro we made. You can see it on the Bazaar, in the Discord, lots of confusion around the numbering system and the versioning of the machines. And lastly, we have this problem surrounding, there's been people who have come to us and said, hey, I'd love to include my machine in the official precious plastic download kit. How can I do that? And we thought, okay, this is a great idea, but we never really found the right place for it. So we looked at these three problems and thought of how can we create a new place that kind of solves all three. So that's how we came up with what's called the machine inventory. And the machine inventory is all about creating a place for the latest and greatest in terms of development going on in the community. So it's a place where you can go and see multiple versions of the shredder, for example, and decide, okay, which one's going to be best for me to build. And you can sort based on, yes, the type of machine it is, plus the quality, which we're defining as the sort of quality of the documentation. So how much of the documentation is there? How much has it been tested, et cetera? And then lastly, there's also a filter that's all about difficulty for building this machine. So what kind of tooling and machining am I going to have to do to actually build this machine? And we're hoping this is going to be the place that's going to really accelerate development in the community. So to be honest, we're not really sure how this is going to go. The reason we're sharing with you now is to get feedback. We have just enough out there to really explain the concept. And you can find a link to that down below, along with a guide that explains it more in full. However, we really want your feedback about whether you think this is a good idea. Any way you can see it organized differently, any other filters you're thinking about. So let us know in the comments below as well as the Discord. We'd love to start a conversation with you there. In particular, we're not exactly sure the best place to be storing the information. So we tried a few different systems, including GitHub, GrabCAD, as well as WikiFactory. And yeah, they all kind of have their pluses and minuses. So take a look, see what you think, see if you have a preference for where these files are stored in terms of the CAD, the drawings, all that good stuff. OK, I think that's it for precious plastic. Let's move on and talk about Project Camp, which is our project that's all about prototyping a sustainable way of living. So over the last year, Dave and Rita have been in Portugal setting up Project Camp and really focused on getting a base camp set up. And the base camp is all about providing the basic infrastructure, the water, the electricity to start bringing volunteers there. And actually, they've gotten pretty far. And the first group of volunteers is actually arriving in August. So it's kind of a big step, a little bit scary. Let's see if they're as annoyed with the highway noise as Dave is. And if you haven't seen the update videos yet, they're posting weekly update videos there. Check out that channel. You can find it in the description. And lastly, let's talk about fixing fashion, which is a project that's all about fixing and upgrading your clothes so that we can avoid the waste of fabrics. So since this project was launched a few months ago, we've seen a lot of development in the community going on and a few different fixes and upgrades that we'd like to share. So first up, we have an upgrade that was done by About Blanche. And they used a natural dyeing technique using avocados. It's one of the first examples where we've seen people picking up on this technique. So it's really, really cool to see. And secondly, we have an example from Adele and she's actually in British Columbia. And she took two shirts put together and made a dress out of it, and it looks pretty neat. And lastly, we have this design studio in Texas that upgraded their shorts using an old pair of pants. So again, using some leftover garments to patch together and fix your clothes so you don't have to throw them away in the long term. So please continue to share your fixes and your upgrades. We'd love to see more. Okay, I think that's it for the monthly news. I'm gonna go play some banjo in the yurt and we'll see you next time.