Envision’s latest recycling project –
‘Envision Hands’ is the organisations biggest project yet, they are on a mission to turn recycled bottle tops into prosthetic limbs, and need Cafe’s to jump on board.
Who is Envision?
Envision engage with Government bodies, with the long term unemployed, with the Job Active Network, with some wonderful, giving, generous, kind hearted volunteers, and with a long list of community organisations that is too long to mention here.
Over time, with the help of thousands of long term unemployed participants, they have created many wonderful things, which are then donated, completely free of charge, to the above mentioned list of Not-For-Profit Community Organisations.
What is the Envision Hands project?
“At the moment we are on a mission. Our mission is to create 100 prosthetic hands with 3D printers, which we will then donate completely free of charge, to children in war torn countries that are missing limbs. This is how we’re doing it;
Inspired by the Enabling the Future organisation we will be participating in the world wide community making and donating 3D printed prosthetic hands/arms for children in need across under-serviced countries. The major difference is our project will be using recycled plastic from bottle tops, thus also benefiting the environment.
Bottle caps are fully recyclable. Unfortunately, as reported on ABC’s ‘War on Waste’, they aren’t being recycled. They get sent to landfill, they fall through machinery, and in worst case scenarios, if attached to a bottle, they can explode and force expensive re packing issues.
This overlooked waste product is almost entirely made from HDPE 2 (High Density Poly-Ethylene). After considerable experimentation we have successfully taken this plastic and extruded it to create functioning filament for 3D printers. Once we have the filament we 3D print all the components that make up the hand. Check out our Envision page for more information on what we’re doing, and our Bottle Top Drop page for more information on collecting tops.
The next step is to procure the correct machinery to be able to make 3D hands on a bigger scale, and the proper facilities to make it viable”
How can you help?
Envision need all the bottle tops they can to help with this worthy cause, so before you throw away your milk bottle cap – think twice.
For more information please contact the project co-ordinator – Sean Teer
