Handpicked by Sir James Dyson, Polyformer is an open-source machine that recycles plastic water bottles into low-cost 3D filament. The Polyformer can take one standard 500ml plastic bottle and produce three metres of 3D printer filament.
Students Swaleh Owais from McMaster University and Reiten Cheng from ArtCenter College of Design joined forces on the project. Their aim with Polyformer is to achieve two goals: sustainability, to tackle plastic waste management, and accessibility, to produce low-cost filament making it more accessible to those in developing countries. The students are awarded £30,000—approximately $46,000 CAD—to further their project. Swaleh and Reiten have shared that with the money they will be deploying more Polyformer units next month in Rwanda when they visit their partner 3D printing makerspace.
There are about 1,500 people inside the Polyformer community around the world, and about 30+ machines that have been built in countries like Rwanda, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, Canada and the USA.
The Polyformer team will use the prize money to deploy several Polyformers and Polyformer-Lites at their partner makerspaces in Rwanda. With these machines, local students, designers and makers will have access to low-cost 3D printer filament, all while keeping plastic bottles out of potential landfill.
The brief of the James Dyson Award is simple: design something that solves a problem. Since 2005, the James Dyson Foundation has invested over $240,000 into young Canadian engineers.
