“One small step for man...”

Why throw it away?

In the summer of 2015, Edwin and Liesbeth were making dinner. When they tossed away another packaging, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Why is it now ‘worthless’? They emptied their trashcan and were confronted with their personal habits. One thing lead to another and the dream was born.

3D printed building blocks

The next step was doing something with all the plastic. So we shredded the pieces and melted it into the filament that feeds 3D printers. Then we took it to the next level and did it on industrial scale, using recycled pellets from a waste plant. With forty 3D printers we printed 4000 HexCores. A building block inspired by the honeycomb, designed to be light and strong.

From waste to resource

Plastic is often designed to be thrown away. So we turned plastic waste into the foundation of our project. We puzzled the HexCores into the body of our Antarctic vehicle, the Solar Voyager. Unfortunately not all plastic is easy to recycle. We want people to change their perspective on plastic from waste to resource. That means reusing the ‘good’ plastic and avoiding the ‘bad’. To borrow from Neil Armstrong: It’s a small step for you and me, but a giant leap for mankind.