I am not often proud of my home country Italy and how things are currently going there, but these guys from Rome are really doing an exceptional job educating future generations. Who knows, maybe the next Da Vinci will be the one finding a solution to our plastic problem ⚡️

We reached out to Patrizia and asked a few questions about what they do and how they see their contribution toward a world with a different view on plastic.

Can you introduce yourself?
Hello everyone, my name is Patrizia Tomasich and I am the president and director of Explora.

What is Explora?
Explora is a private non-profit from the Children’s Museum based in a central Rome. The Children’s Museum is a permanent museum entirely conceived for children, schools and families, open to the public since 2001. The museum is child-centred (as you might have guessed) and offers games and interactive exhibits on science, environment, communication, society, economics, new technologies that help understand facts, needs, and everyday events.

Explora welcomes approx 150,000 visitors each year and offers workshops for schools and families, events, exhibitions, theme days, training and refresh courses, campus and free outdoor activities.

Give us a bit of background? How did Explora get into plastic recycling?
Explora’s commitments are Science, Play, Environment. It goes as follows:
–  Science, Curiosity and desire for knowledge is discovering, exploring, and can be found everywhere: when observing an insect, throwing a ball or turning the light on. Instilling a love for science in children helps them stay curious and keep asking themselves questions.
– Play, The learning engine,  Hands-on activities and entertainment have now become widely known educational instruments that can be useful to society, schools and families, as they combine fun and learning. Non-formal education or the Learning by doing method adopted in Science Centres is considered today an innovative approach not only for learning but also for understanding.
– Environment, Sustainability and future. Aiming at providing play occasions, investing in future-oriented contents through the development of themes such as environmental sustainability, bioeconomy, and new technologies.

How long have you been working on Precious Plastic?
We came across Precious Plastic with a quick web search (Valuable Plastic) and we fell in love with this idea. We started on June 2016 to combine the real production chain with out Children’s Museum requirements. As a matter of fact we have our visitors engaged in using real tools, material and objects- therefore everything must be secure and safe in order to “produce” something as a direct experience.

How was the project started?
In December 2016 Corepla, National Consortium for the Collection and Recycling of Plastic packages, joined the project and helped us to create the permanent lab for schools and families that opened to the public on May 30th 2017. Plastic is valuable: grind, press, process, extrude, wind up, draw, 3D print, this is how we can unveil the secrets of plastic and learn how to recycle consciously.

What is your goal working with Precious Plastic?
Our main goal is to make our visitors collect, identify, reuse, recycle and make new objects from plastic packaging. The exhibit focuses the attention on some materials used for packaging: PET (bottles), HDPE (containers and caps) and other plastics, combining practice with the theory on how to identify the different types of plastics and how to recover them. The ever-growing use of plastic packaging is a contemporary phenomenon: only by recovering and reusing plastics we can stimulate a circular economy and help protect our Planet.

Are kids enjoying the workshops?
Yes! They absolutely love it. And teachers too.

Where do you see yourself and the project in a year time?
The exhibit and lab are considered as a permanent activity and space and we hope to attract an ever growing number of people and children in the coming years.
https://www.mdbr.it/en/plastica-preziosa/

And what products or creations do you make?
Children produce a variety of small object to be taken home with them at the end of the activity such as key ring, a star with the name of the classroom/school or a pin with a special design given by children (Doodle3D).

As it often happens you probably encountered some problems along the way? Any learning you want to share with the community?
The fact that 3D printer can print only with PLA string and nothing can be printed with PET/HDPE recycled string produced by the extrusion in order to have a good product caused a great challenge. This took us months to understand and eventually to give up to it.

But I am sure you had some great successes as well. Anyone in particular?
We consider the permanent and live activities program on this “topic” that will be offered to thousands of children and families a great success with a possible exponential impact on the future.
https://www.mdbr.it/en/plastica-preziosa/

We often like to end our articles with a little message to our community people, anything from you?
Children, as key players of the future, can learn how important plastic recovery is by becoming conscious consumers, and this is a must for a Children’s Museum and our society at large.

Thank you Patrizia, it’s great to see people pushing Precious Plastic in unpredictable areas in such a detailed and professional way. Children are our hope for the future and indeed an educated and conscious new generation is needed to tackle plastic waste from within. Keep rocking 💥

If you happen to be around rome during your summer holidays make sure to pay a visit to Explora and Precious Plastic machines. Valuable Plastics workshops will start again from September. More info here.

Museo dei Bambini S.C.S. ONLUS
via Flaminia 82
Rome

Opening time
Tuesday till Sunday
10:00 – 12:00 / 15:00 – 17:00

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