Precious Plastic Blog 3: Where sustainability, entrepreneurship, and creativity collide
Despite this era of social distancing, groups of UU and HU students have been cooperating to turn the Precious Plastic project into reality, where valuable merchandise for student associations will be created from what would have been wasted plastic. The ball is now within Glenn and his HU colleagues鈥 court. They are assembling the final machine that will show how a circular - rather than linear - supply chain can exist.
With 3D images to work on, previous research to build on, and a whole logistics chain to organise, they will come out of this process with valuable experience for their future careers. Not only that, they will also prove that practicing sustainability brings with it the development of a newfound creative and entrepreneurial spirit.
This blog item is the third of four blog posts written by Green Office UU, about the UU and HU Precious Plastic project. Visit the Precious Plastic homepage to learn more.
Glenn Esink, a bachelor鈥檚 student in Electrical Engineering at Hogeschool Utrecht, has been working on building the Precious Plastic machine since September 2020, after he chose the project as one of his 鈥榪uest鈥 projects for his degree. When the time came to change quest projects, Glenn decided to stick around, 鈥淚 was so interested in making this machine, and getting the final product out of it, that I decided to dedicate a second period to this project鈥. The 3D representation of what the machine will look like popped up on the screen, and after spinning the machine while zooming in and out from different angles, he shares what the material result will be of all this mental investment, and what he and his team learned from it.
An entrepreneurial spirit
The design of a whole machine and supply chain required a diversity of practical skills. Among the students, people were needed who could deal with electricity, who could weld, code, assemble the different machine parts and put them all together. While the machine designs were sourced from the original Precious Plastic, much thought and care had to be invested to make our machine suit Utrecht Science Park鈥檚 needs. Options such as combining two machines into one had to be explored, to 鈥済et the best of both worlds; where we can continuously keep producing the liquid form of the plastic with the extruder, while simultaneously having good enough compression to create a solid product out of our mould鈥, as Glenn put it.
Executive decisions such as whether or not to combine the two machine designs have helped Glenn and his team refine the decision-making skills required from true entrepreneurs. While lessons like these were crucial, it鈥檚 especially in the moments where things didn鈥檛 go as planned that their creativity really had to kick in.
Creativity and the unexpected
During the construction process of the machine, there were moments where Glenn and his team realized 鈥渙h, we designed it this way and it doesn鈥檛 work鈥. In those moments, Glenn said that the optimal solution was looking into one of the bins laying around in the Caroline Bleekergebouw workshop, pick up a spare part, and see if it could do the trick. Not only does this resourcefulness bode well for a circular future; Glenn thinks that the ability to say 鈥渉ey, this has been laying around for a long amount of time, why don鈥檛 we use it here?鈥 will be a big boost for his future career.
The freedom that the HU students had in the project also let them explore alternative options which weren鈥檛 originally on the table. The very control panel that would control the machine wasn鈥檛 part of the original plan, but it became Glenn鈥檚 personal project due to his interest in automation. 鈥淭he automatization process of it, that鈥檚 not something the Green Office originally had in mind鈥 My previous colleague and I figured that out and researched the benefits of it, and I am trying to make it happen鈥. Instead of constantly supervising the machine, Glenn鈥檚 idea to add a control panel will allow the production cycle to be automated, and to notify the team when one cycle is finished.
Being resourceful
Creativity also comes in when considering how to make the machine in itself be an example of circularity and sustainability, as that is what the Precious Plastic project preaches. Glenn thinks that the group developed more creativity as they worked on sustainability, as 鈥渢here is a thin line between the two鈥. The automation process for example will help with reducing unnecessary energy and plastic use thanks to the machine regulating its own processes. Other challenges included how to source the machine鈥檚 materials in a circular way, for example by reusing old wood for the machine鈥檚 surface, or by using an old bike wheel as a manual injector to press melted plastic in the product mould. 鈥淚ndustrial engineers normally make designs with completely new materials because you don鈥檛 want anything to break, but with a machine like this, you can definitely be creative鈥.
As Glenn and his knowing smirk leave the screen and move on to ordering small gears for the machine, one question is left for you. What about you? If you are ever asked to try to build something new, will you be like Glenn and walk on the thin line between creativity, sustainability, and entrepreneurship?