 Welcome to Monday news number 36 the first one of 2020 and last year we released special plastic version 4 a lot of new things new products new websites new machines all of that information is online so really good to hear and see all you guys really like version 4 we never really know it's been on our hat for like one year so putting it online is always a bit of a tricky thing and we get a lot of good positive feedback thanks Jerry we also get a lot of constructive feedback actually of things we missed or improved or we should do better so we have one discord channel where you can share these messages to us so we are there the whole team is there to listen and improve it so we also already released one updated version of our download kit and starter kits because a few files were missing and was a bit messy so thanks for sharing the feedback few interesting facts about the lounge the download kit the main one is downloaded over 2,000 times the starter kits all together 8,000 times so that could result in a lot of new fresh plastic workspaces we have our first community uploaded how-tos from fresh plastic Estonia that makes a bag from old bags kunstabschmiede on how to run a workspace and give you tips and tricks on what they've learned throughout the years and copy paste has a how-to on how to store your plastic in an old water container which is very useful and it's really cool actually to see this so we can learn back from you guys so make sure to properly document your how-tos we have over 20 events created and 250 pins are added to the map so let me actually address this one because this has been a very often requested question so we used to have a big fresh plastic map but over 12,000 pins on there of workspaces well so people that want to get started but we kind of deleted that it's still online but we don't use it anymore so we often ask like why so the main reason actually is that although there were a lot of pins on the maps and it looks impressive and it's cool to share because you see this global community around the world but to be fair a lot of pins were created maybe one and a half year ago the people are not active anymore they are hard to reach so in a way it showed sort of a not fair image or an honest image of what the community was really like because it was not sort of updated or maintained and besides that it felt very individualistic so if you would visit the local place you need to get in touch with every individual there to send them a message to connect and then the next person again needs to get in touch with every individual which feels very inefficient so that's why we decided to focus more on community points so that you can set up a community point that everyone comes there together so the moment you plan to not be in a project anymore the community point still lives so it can sort of moves on without having one individual being responsible for it so I think that's overall something we did for version 4 to really focus more on groups and communities instead of individuals and actually in the coming months the community platform is going to be quite a fun and important tool and because that's where we're going to generate a lot of information where you guys can share what you guys are doing where we can see the community growing on the map and there's actually quite some things we need to do to maintain this to make sure it doesn't become like a spammy chaotic place but let me show you but how that works so for this I need to introduce you to catbot and see is our automated system that makes sure all this spam and moderation is filtered on the platform to make sure the place stays nice clean proper so yeah catbot takes care of this and it's located right here in the studio yeah it's an AI algorithm so here we have catbot so she manages the online community platform so we get a notification in she checks if it's valid and then get in touch to improve the quality of it yes that's what I do and I was thinking so I did this a while ago with Mattia we had an interview not good in doing interviews so we'll see how this goes super improvised yes improvised as always yeah so what do you like about fresh plastic okay it's been part of the team for a very long time to ask some questions so I figured maybe we can do that with you because you've been around for a while but no one I think really knows you besides from the community news so up for some questions need to take off my shoes in the color scene but let me give you the mic hey hey so you're catbot I'm catbot hey okay good that's how they call me yes why because I work a lot okay and what is your real name Katarina I like it I'm from Germany and what did you study I studied industrial design in Munich how old are you I'm 26 do you feel like 26 sometimes sometimes I feel younger but I do feel like 26 I also feel 26 but I'm not 26 and what's your favorite food when it's warm warm day what would you like to eat a nice green salad with clementine how did you how did you get involved with fresh plastic and how long ago is that how long have you been part of it okay so I guess like around three and a half years ago I started researching into plastic waste and recycling and that was in Kenya I did the research my state Kenya and while I was researching I found out about precious plastic and kind of dived into that topic but when I really got in touch and like took it a little bit more seriously that I want to get involved is when I saw that you guys were planning something in Kenya and with precious plastic so this kind of me being involved in Kenya and in the topic plastic recycling already was the trigger for me to then reach out and yeah get involved so why plastic why were you working on plastic do you like it do you hate it what's the what's the trigger I knew that I wanted to like do something in Kenya first of all because my family is there and I knew that there was there were a lot of problems and I wanted to tackle a bigger problem then just like little things we tend to do as a designer in Europe and plastic was kind of the the material which or the problem where I felt like as an industrial designer you are actually responsible of that like very much responsible of that problem as well because you produce it as an like you your it's in your hands to produce something and choose the material for that so now we finished the project in Kenya a while ago you're still around your precious plastic what do you do nowadays here what's what's your yeah I do a little bit of many things but mainly it's all connected to community work researching and kind of stalking community what they're up to and gathering it and putting it together on our platforms and websites and making sure that the websites and the information we share is kind of digestible and brings it all together so basically community work and websites platform and a little bit of organization no part so if they do their documentation better you have less work to do right exactly okay and what do you think is exciting for the coming months for precious plastic if with all the new information we release what do you think is gonna be cool or interesting to follow yeah for sure seeing some of the big machines built for me especially the sheet press I would say and and seeing more cool patterns and materials being produced with the sheet press and seeing how that works in different countries actually I'm very curious about that and of course seeing the platform being filled up with new pins but especially then seeing like more networks coming up and how to because there is a lot of things out there which can be documented and which I've seen already as well and now that there is this tool of documenting things properly or more easily I'm very happy to see more how-to is coming in okay and anything you wanted to mention to the community I guess you talk with them more often on a camera YouTube but I don't know maybe there's something maybe not yeah I could say keep on doing what you do it's very inspiring and go on the platforms because the platforms are very inspiring and do it properly it's super nice sometimes it's it's kind of maybe you don't see that if you share something now that this is actually that this reaches someone or helps someone else but it actually does and everyone learns from what everyone else shares and that's very powerful and even better if you do it properly because then it's yeah more people will see it and find it and like it and understand it cool yeah thank you thank you thank you alright so before we go actually it's also 2020 which means a new year and we just finished version 4 so in a way we're now free and that's how we usually do it I'm tired I spent too much time on pressure plastic I want to do something completely different but this time actually we have a team of people like Katrina but a few others that really gonna be more the pressure plastic core team so people that keep on developing keep on doing projects keep on doing collaborations here in the workspace so it's a bit of a different structure for what we usually work like and the upside is also it could actually generate some income for the project because although we have you guys supporting on patreon which is awesome it's not enough to fully sustain the project and all the people and all the development we want to do so next to patreon we would sort of have this more precious plastic team that it can really take on projects and collaborations so not sure how that's gonna go it's the first time we're gonna try it out so we'll just keep you updated in the Monday news how this new structure is gonna go and also the project we do meanwhile I would still take a break on pressure plastic so I have some time to think about other stuff like story hopper videos so we're currently in Berlin super nice weather I just bought some food in this old supermarket no old gas station now it's a supermarket because I'm making a trip from Moscow to China it's the longest train ride in the world because I still wanted to make this video on how to travel sustainable what you should take the plane the train so I have one week full time in the train to figure it out and make that video so on my way now and next month that video should be ready