Bottle to Filament: 3D Printing
Turning recycled bottles into 3D-printing filament, made right here in the community.
Recycling often feels abstract: plastic disappears into a bin and the story ends. Bottle to Filament makes the loop visible and local: plastic bottles collected from school recycling bins become the raw material for something new and useful, made right here in the community.
It's both an environmental solution and a hands-on STEM showcase: proof for students that the waste they sort can come back as something they design and build.
One bottle's journey
Follow a single bottle through the loop: collected at school, processed locally, and spun into filament that's ready for the printer.
Collect bottles
Gather plastic bottles from school recycling bins.
Clean & sort
Wash and separate plastics by type for processing.
Process plastic
Shred and melt clean plastic into raw material.
Create filament
Spin the material into usable recycled filament.
3D-print new objects
Print something new from recycled filament.
From the recycling bin, to the 3D printer. ♻
Recycling & Composting
Student-built recycling and composting, now running across six Pike County high schools.
Sort Smart
An AI cafeteria tray scanner that ends the guesswork and stops contamination at the source.
Tray Policy
Amending state policy to get styrofoam out of school cafeterias and fund the switch.