3D Printing

Greek city locals help design street furniture 3D-printed from their plastic waste

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New Raw's robotic arm 3D printer transforming plastic waste into street furniture at the Zero Waste Lab
Stefanos Tsakiris
Furniture 3D-printed from recycled plastic waste at New Raw's Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece
Stefanos Tsakiris
The Zero Waste Lab serves as an education center for locals to learn about the plastic recycling process, drop off waste plastic for recycling and get the chance to design new furniture for their neighborhoods
Stefanos Tsakiris
New Raw's robotic arm 3D printer uses waste plastic pellets (left) to make functional street furniture (right)
Stefanos Tsakiris
Citizens of Thessaloniki, Greece, are invited to submit designs for street furniture for possible fabrication at the Zero Waste Lab
Stefanos Tsakiris
New Raw's robotic arm 3D printer transforming plastic waste into street furniture at the Zero Waste Lab
Stefanos Tsakiris
New Raw's robotic arm 3D printer extrudes  recycled plastic to form custom street furniture at the Zero Waste Lab
Stefanos Tsakiris
Example of the kind of street furniture being 3D-printed at the Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece
Stefanos Tsakiris
The 3D-printed street furniture sits somewhere between ergonomic bench and plant pot
Stefanos Tsakiris
New Raw aims to use up four tons of plastic waste while the Zero Waste Lab project is running
Stefanos Tsakiris
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Towards the end of 2017 we highlighted a research concept that turned plastic waste into street furniture. Print Your City has now gone from early prototypes to city scale project with the launch of a Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece, where locals can take their plastic waste and have it turned into urban furniture.

"Plastic has a design failure," said New Raw founders Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki. "It is designed to last forever, but often we use it once and then throw it away. With Print Your City, we endeavor to show a better way of using plastic in long lasting and high value applications."

The 3D-printed street furniture sits somewhere between ergonomic bench and plant pot
Stefanos Tsakiris

New Raw studio is based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and was founded in 2015 to look into closing the plastic waste loop. The Print Your City initiative began with the XXX bench and transformed ground up waste plastic into functional street furniture using a large scale 3D printer.

The first Greek city prototypes were 3D-printed in the middle of last year and sit somewhere between benches and plant pots. Each one took 12 hours to print and used around 100 kg (220 lb) of ground up waste plastic. Believing that production efficiency could be improved, New Raw built the Zero Waste Lab in collaboration with Coca Cola.

The Lab serves as an education center for locals to learn about the plastic recycling process, drop off waste plastic for recycling and get the chance to design new furniture for their neighborhoods.

Furniture 3D-printed from recycled plastic waste at New Raw's Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece
Stefanos Tsakiris

"Citizens can shape the designs and uses of each unique object according to their needs," said the project in a press release. "They can choose which public space will house their piece, as well as the shape, color, and specific integrated functions that will promote a healthy and environment-friendly lifestyle in the city. Each object can feature a bike rack or a vaulting horse, a tree pot or even a dog feeding bowl or a bookcase. What's more, the geometries are based on ergonomic curvatures that accommodate a relaxed body posture."

More than 3,000 designs have been submitted by locals since the project website launched in December, 2018, and the first examples of printed furniture are being installed in Thessaloniki's Hanth Park this month. New Raw is aiming to recycle four tons of plastic waste while the project is running. The Zero Waste Lab is open four days per week until May this year. The video below has more.

Source: Print Your City

View gallery - 9 images
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2 comments
paul314
That's a big honking nozzle compared to your average 3D printer!
I think the efficiency thing is a little bit of a boondoggle. The whole point is to sequester plastics for the long term, so unless there's somehow a shortage of recyclable plastic why not use more in each piece.
ljaques
I'm guessing that their robotic arm makes for a larger modeling area than an Ender 3. Soitenly not a 0.4mm nozzle, right, paul314?
"With our 100% recycling program, we use everything. This little sippy cup for children here is made directly from kitty litter scoops!"