 Welcome to the launch video of precious plastic version 3. In this video I'm going to give you an overview of all the things we've been working on and made for this version. But first I'll give a little bit of background of this project. So since 2013 we started working on providing people the tools and knowledge so they can start recycling plastic themselves. And two versions later many people from around the world started actually setting up these plastic recycle workspaces. From South Korea to Thailand, New Zealand, Mexico, Austria and with a new one opening up every week. However the plastic problem is bigger than these 130 people around the world that started. Plastic waste can be found in every corner of the world so should be plastic recycling. So we started developing this new version, version 3 and we kicked it off with our banana campaign. See we really wanted to develop this version independent. Don't rely on investors or shipping goodies around the world with a Kickstarter or rely on grants from the government. We really wanted to develop this with the support of people for the people, bottom up. So we came up with this new thing called the money and people campaign. Basically we outlined our plan, what we wanted to do, put it online and asked people to either support with money or with their skills. So people could donate or they come to our workspace and really help us develop this version hands-on. But it was kind of a shitty offer. I mean people had to take care of their own travel, find a place to sleep and work full-time in this workspace to develop this new version. But people actually came. So before we dive into the details of version 3 we need one big thanks for the entire team from all over the world that helped to develop this version. Joey, Marta, Katrina, Emil, Bjorn, Matthijs, Sonja, Mathia, Jerry and our cardboard version of Taco. It couldn't be here because of stupid visa reasons. But it's really without these people dedicating all their time and effort into developing this version and being here working with plastic is that we're able to pull off this version. So now let's get started showing you guys version 3. So a big part of precious plastic are our machines. They actually turn the plastic trash into new valuable things. However, we don't really see people in households setting up these machines in their garage. We like to see it as you have a few places in each village around the world where you can bring your plastic trash and they take care of it because it takes quite some time, effort and dedication to really run a proper recycling workspace because plastic recycling is about more than only building machines. It's about setting up a process from collecting, to separating, to shredding and finally you make something out of it. And every now and then we set up these workspaces ourselves from scratch so we learned from that. And one time we did it in Kissy in Kenya and we had two weeks to set up this entire workspace from scratch. However, while doing this we realized it's kind of complex to set this thing up yourself completely from scratch without any guidelines to really have an overview of the full process. So we figured what if we could streamline this process, standardize it in a way that it becomes easier for everyone else to set it up. So we squeezed our entire workspace inside a 30 square meter surface which happens to be the same as a shipping container which you can easily find anywhere in the world. So everything fits inside this container so people bring their plastic trash, it's being sorted out on different types then we have a shredder which chops it into small flakes which we store here on different types and color. We have some tools to work with the molds which can be stored in here and in this area we have the machines that heat up the plastic and actually turn it into something new. And on this back wall we can display all the things that are made in here. So people can walk in, have a look at them and buy them. So the whole process is very linear, you really start there with plastic trash and then all the way up to here where you turn it into something new. We share all the blueprints and instruction videos to set up a workspace like this yourself online on our website. But you don't need to do it in a container if you already have a space use that one. We just provide this as a blueprint not for building machines but really setting up this whole recycling workspace. Now we are aware that it can be a bit overwhelming to set up an entire workspace like this on your own. But like I said we don't really see this as individual workspaces but more that they are set up in little villages or communities around the world. So you could also collaborate and make it happen together and in order to make that easier we made a map. So on this map you can find people in your neighborhood that also want to get started. So let's say you live in Bali, Indonesia. You can just go there online and see who else in your area would like to start and you can get in touch. You can also add your own pin to this map. So let's say you want to get started and you want to help out promoting or building machines or collecting plastic. Mention this in your pin so people around can get in touch and you can start together. And on this map you can also see workspaces that have already been set up. It's just fun to watch but it could also be useful to learn from them or maybe give them a visit to see how they've done their things locally. So make sure to add yourself to the map because altogether we can make it happen. So in the beginning of this version we did a lot of experiments working with plastic just to understand the material and really push it to the limits. For instance here we made a bowl with a completely new texture which almost looks more like bubble gum. Or in this one we made a block and really sanded and polished it so it looks like marble. It's super shiny. Or make objects that are bigger than what we usually work with and putting plastic in a completely new perspective. And we really needed to do all these experiments to understand the material and really push it to the limits. Now I would say 90% of the things we try here they fail. That's kind of what we do. A lot of trial and error. But we share the information we get back to you guys so you don't have to make the same mistakes as us again. So experimenting with plastic is a big part of this version just to understand where we're working with and the possibilities of the material. So for us this is a palette of possibilities and color blends and texture where we can make many more products out of. So we've been doing a lot of material tests and experiments but they were all kind of rough and quickly made. We really wanted to see what if we could really dedicate a serious amount of time to each object to see how far we can push the value of plastic. So we made five different objects and each of them containing an impressive story about plastic. So here we have the first one. It's a piece of ivory. And we started crafting this when we heard that plastic was originated as a replacement for ivory because we started making more and more products from this material and it got very scarce. So we needed to find a replacement, a cheap replacement, which was plastic. So we decided to take it the other way around and really make this expensive ivory piece out of plastic waste. This object is based on a mineral which is a valuable raw resources to start building something new. So we put a lot of different color blends variations in here to really show this thing as a raw, rough diamond where it still has a lot of potential. So this vase is all about the texture. So usually when we make plastic objects they are super quickly made efficient and super smooth surfaces so it pops out of the mold quickly. So for this one we really wanted to make it all by hand so we could really impose all these textures on it which gives a completely different look. It doesn't look like plastic at all but it's actually made from DVD cases. And here we have our gold bars because we really see plastic as a precious material. It's made from a fossil fuel from oil where we're slowly running out of and we just cannot make more of it. So the amount we have that's all we got. So it might look like a cheap material the way how we treat it now but it isn't and it's a matter of time before we're going to figure that out. And for the last one we bought this cheap 5 euro plastic outdoor chair and started crafting it and applying new texture to it really putting a lot of craftsmanship in here to make the chair more valuable and show that it's not the material which makes it cheap it's the amount of time and effort we put into it and the moment we start dedicating more of our precious time the objects also becomes more valuable. So these objects are quite abstract and not super useful in daily life. They're a good way for us to communicate the story about plastic and we really learned a lot and developed new techniques while we made them. But for you guys probably not super useful so we turned them into different individual techniques the best one we got out of this and we're going to share those with you. So after doing all these experiments and making these art objects we learned a lot about plastic and came across many new interesting techniques. So we have this information but we like it that you know how to do this as well. So we created a whole new bunch of technique instruction videos that show you how to do it. So for instance one is that you show how to make your own CNC milled mold from aluminum which is a super precise and advanced technique. So you can really make advanced objects like an iPhone case which needs to be very precise so it snaps on your phone. So we'll show you in the video how to make this mold and how to mill it. Another one is how to create these marble-like shapes and objects. So they're made from plastic bags fused together and it becomes super strong and solid. And these objects open up a whole new way because you can edit them later with different tools. Or with our extrusion machine we found a way on how to make beams. So you can make them in different color sizes or textures and these things well they look nice but you can construct things with it like a tower or a shed or a ladder. And that again opens up this whole new world of possibilities. So I'm excited to see what comes out of that one. And here we have wall grips. They're made using aluminum casted molds which is a very manual way of making molds but it's super cheap because you just use some old aluminum, you heat it up, you melt it and you can really craft your own mold. Make this bowl using laser-cutted molds. So you can cut the parts, weld them together and create this basic shape. But as you can imagine with that technique you could also make a whole different range of products. And there are many more techniques than this on the website to show you different ways of how to work with plastic and how to make molds. And we introduced this new section on the website where community members can share their instruction video. Hi, we're having Stan's workshop. We're going to show you how to make some stew cakes. Hi, I'm Srimo from Slovakia and I will teach you how to make recycled plastic wok-o. And we highly encourage the rest of the community to share your videos because in this way it's not precious plastic headquarters that needs to get all this information but it really comes from the entire community all over the world so the project can really grow beyond us which is a powerful next step. Now we applied that same thinking on starter kits. Originally we promised to deliver you guys starter kits so you can make machines more easier yourself. However when we gave it a good think it didn't really make sense in the long run. You see we would like precious plastic to run on its own not relying on us so if we would drop that tomorrow the project would still continue but if we're the one providing the starter kits and we're not there anymore the project stops. So we were looking for a solution in the long run and we went all in on doing it more local. We're training machine builders around the world to build these machines themselves in their local area by providing them an instruction video, tools, blueprints to set up their own efficient streamlined process and their own machine building business so they can sell them. And it's fully embedded in our platform so as a machine builder you can add yourself to our map so people can find you and get in touch or if you made machines or parts you can sell them in our online bazaar. Which brings me to the next point. Very often we get an email from someone around the world asking us if we can sell the machines to them. However we don't do this because we really focus on the development of the project and the machines and not in selling and building them. But we also got a lot of emails from people like machine builders saying they would like to sell the machines to someone but they don't know who wants them. So it would be super nice if those people meet each other because then they can help each other out. And we try to make this connection but it's difficult with so many people so many emails we can't really do it properly ourselves. So we started thinking and created our online bazaar. It's basically an online marketplace where people from precious plastic can buy and sell objects. They could sell their shredded plastic, parts of the machines, plastic objects they made and on the other hand people can buy them. So by buying objects on the bazaar you instantly support those who work in plastic recycling. So it's a good way on the one hand to support this community but also really to get it easier going yourself. So you could buy parts of machines or a whole machine in your local area so it doesn't need to be shipped all around the world. Now this thing is still in beta because there's still a lot to figure out and we don't really know if people actually want this. I mean it's an idea that makes a lot of sense to us but let's see and find out how it will go. But make sure to add your items on there if you want to sell something and buy something. So you support these precious plastic recycle workspaces around the world. Alright so these were all our big updates but we also have a few small ones. So first we have machine upgrades which you can see on our website and they make the machines more efficient, safer or quicker. So for instance this screw fits the extrusion machine and once you upgrade it you have a lot of new possibilities. And we made these tiny brass tabs that make it easy to mark your product. So once you make something from plastic you heat up the coin and you mark the product which you can find in our bazaar. And we made a precious plastic manual. So this is a booklet that contains all the information about how to run your own shop, how to set it up, how to run the machines, how plastic works. This is the manual you need when you set up a precious plastic workspace. You can also find the PDF version in our download kit. Now everything what we do and what you just saw in the video we share open source online for free. We don't even ask for an email address. In the end we wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone in the world to start recycling plastic. However if you start it would be nice to participate in our community because all together we can really grow it and make this movement bigger. So we asked for money and people when we started this campaign and all our people power went into the things you just saw. But I also want to show you where all our money went and how much we actually got. So I'm going to show that with some badass charts. So we worked on this version from February till October 2017. We had 307 single donations and raised €8,300. We had 354 Patreons who supported us monthly. And all together they raised €11,200. And we did a few collaborations here and there and we had €25,000 from that. Which in total makes it €44,500. This was our budget to develop this version. Our expenses went here. The biggest part into materials like metals and molds, rent and electricity for the workspace and team compensations to make sure we can keep going what we want to do. And in total this was €48,000. Not a super good output but we'll make it work. So to put this in perspective this is without actually hiring all the people that helped. So if we did hire this dream team of nine people on an average of four months each we would have to spend €90,000. So people helping out with this project and putting their energy in it has been a crucial part of the project. So a big thanks for the entire team that helped out. All our active online community helpers that helped out. And everyone that supported on Patreon and brought a donation. All together you made this version possible. Really precious plastic runs fully on the power of the community. It's funded, developed and executed by people like you from around the world. So if you want to help out with this project, want to get started, add yourself to the map. Buy plastic recycled products in our bazaar if you want to support individual precious plastic workspaces around the world. Join our community to actively help out with support for those that need it. And even sharing this around is a crucial part for the project. We have all the information to start recycling plastic but if people don't know it exists doesn't do anything. And finally you can support us with a donation or support us monthly on Patreon to keep us really going in the long run. So next week we're going to have an offline exhibition of a whole version 3. So you can see all these things in real life. From our container to the experiments to these wall grips. And on the 21st of October it starts and we're going to start off with a launch event. So we will be there our entire team. So drop by if you're around in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. And if you live a bit too far or you can't make it I will post a next monthly news update. I'm going to do a tour around and show you everything digitally. So stay tuned and make sure to visit preciousplastic.com to watch our brand new promo video. It's awesome. Thanks for watching. I'm going to take a sleep and I'll see you next time.