@meltcollective is an interdisciplinary project with students from different faculties and universities. A core group of about ten works on the project regularly with more and more people following and contributing to the project on daily basis.

We got into plastic recycling by learning about the precious plastic. We’re all interested in the hands-on approach and educational potential of the precious plastic model. Many of us study different engineering disciplines, which trigger our interest on the technical aspects of plastic processing.

With time, we come to appreciate and grapple with the different dimensions of the problem. We started working on Precious Plastic last year summer. We obtained funds and support through sustainability grants on campus such as AMS SPF, PAF, and SEEDS. Officially we are an engineering design team and an AMS club.

Our goal is to become a knowledge center for plastic processing at UBC. We want to create a space where students can actively participate in recycling by shredding, melting, and moulding their own precious plastic. By virtue of this space we hope students begin thinking about the life cycle of all their products and the waste management systems that process them.

In a year we see ourselves as a main feature of UBC’s student life. A movement that forces students to question and innovate the plastic products they use. We hope to have consistent speaker series and workshops and strong partnerships with buildings and labs where we redirect their plastic “waste.” We also hope to transfer our knowledge to different areas that don’t have the resources to do research and development on this process.

We want to create a huge range of products such as skateboards, clipboards, seedling trays for plant, 3D printing filament, surf fins, pendants for jewerly, drawer knobs and bookshelf!

Indeed, we faced some difficulties in obtaining and setting up a space, and designing products that allow the operation to be economically feasible. Acquiring a space was a huge problem with our project. We were unable to get one for about 10 months that lead to a standstill of our development. The inertia towards giving us a space was largely due to our needs – three phase power, proper ventilation, and afterhours’ access. In addition to finally having a home, our team is constantly in awe of all the support we received.

Here’s a message which Melt Collective would like to deliver:

We hope to come together and form a broad community that encompasses people working on this same problem all over the world. In order for this genuinely positive grassroots movement to bear fruit, it is important to not only work hard locally, but also to collaborate in a vast, strong, optimistic coalition. 😀

Check out their website and social media for more updates!

‍