Page 53 - Plastics News March 2018

teChnoLogy

MIT students to convert waste plastic into filaments for 3D printers

rotoprint — a Pune-based start-up in the field of filament other 10 ran the machinery and were involved in the
Pproduction has developed technology to convert waste production of filaments,” he said.
plastic into filaments for 3D printers. Not only that he is In scientific parlance, Protoprint works with a special
trying to help wastepickers become micro-entrepreneurs by
class of plastic called high density polyethylene (HDPE).
helping them use technology to convert waste plastic into This sturdy plastic is used for moulding bottles and pipes
filaments for 3D printers. Union Minister for Food Processing
due to its durability and constitutes 30 per cent of the
Harsimrat Kaur Badal congratulated the founders. When plastic waste generated. “Mostly, wastepickers sell their
technology tries to solve an environmental problem, results
collected stock of HDPE at a rate of Rs 15-20 per kg. Our
are multi-faceted and can range from solving a burning process enables them to generate a kg of filament per kg
environmental issue to generating jobs at the grassroot level.
of such plastic collected, which obviously will sell at a
Protoprint started in 2013, when Siddhant Pai, a student at much higher price,” said Jayant. But during the process,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, started thinking
they noticed that the filaments got wrapped, so they
about the problem teamed up with
of disposal of plastic
the Pune-based
waste. At the time, his National Chemical
father, Jayant Paim,
Laboratory (NCL)
a computer scientist, to find a solution
who is also a director of
to the problem.At
Protoprint, had started present, filaments
experimenting with
for 3D printers are
3D printing, while his priced anything
mother, Suchismita,
between Rs 2,000
also a director, was and Rs 4,000 per
involved in writing
kg, with Jayant
about wastepickers’ mentioning that
cooperative Swach.
they hope to price
Talking about the company , Jayant said his son became their filaments at a highly competitive rate.
interested in disposal of plastic waste when he came home
during his summer vacations . Meanwhile, this initiative was awarded a two-year grant
by the department of science and technology. At present,
“The idea was simple — to use technology and convert Jayant said they are very close to finding the ‘magic
discarded plastic into filaments for 3D printers,” said
reagent’, which will help in stopping the problem of
Jayant. But the start-up had a bigger social dimension to wrapping and hope to go for the commercial production
it, and the founders wanted to use this venture to generate
of filaments by June. While NCL has filed provisional
grassroots-level entrepreneurs. Accordingly, Swach was patents for the chemicals involved in the process, Jayant
roped in and the first 40-member team was formed, which
said they aim to keep the main technology open for use.
was to operate out of a Swach segregation shed in Kothrud. “Our aim is to help in the creation of grassroots-level
“We set up the necessary machinery. Of the 40 women,
entrepreneurs,” he said.
30 were involved in regular collection of waste while the

53 March 2018 Plastics News