Sussex students are invited to participate in an exciting new project to transform plastic waste into a wide variety of components, parts, and art, starting with turning plastic bottles into filament for the 3D printers used at the University.

The project, which will be based in the School of Life Sciences, currently aims to tackle two issues; decreasing the amount of plastic that needs to be transported far away for recycling and decreasing the amount of plastic filament (the material that is deposited layer by layer to create 3D objects) bought for many different printing projects running at the University.

In the long run it is hoped the initiative will be led by students and will be expanded to recycle more types of plastics into more types of products and outcomes.

Dr Andre Maia Chagas, who launched the project, said: “Our plan for this initiative is for it to be led by students across the University. If you are interested in environmental issues and want to be part of the solution, please come and join us and shape the project from the beginning. We would love to see students from different disciplines come together and tackle this incredibly important issue and turn waste plastic into something good!”

If you are interested in taking part, please email Dr Andre Chagas at a.maia-chagas@sussex.ac.uk and Dr Zahid Pranjol at z.pranjol@sussex.ac.uk.