The Earth is a big place. It's so big that we can't even keep track of everything happening on it. And, when it comes to protecting our planet, there's still so much we don't know. That's why every small business, person, initiative, and project we get the chance to interview and write about in The Plastic Runner Blog, feels like a small victory for our team.

Through our LinkedIn feed, we recently learned about Precious Plastic. The name caught our attention, and we were intrigued enough to spend some time reading about them. The Precious Plastic movement is a global initiative that seeks to tackle and provide solutions to the ever-growing presence of plastic pollution. There are two networks in Australia - Precious Plastic Monash University and Precious Plastic Melbourne; we especially want to share the former one's projects and mission with you throughout this blog entry.

 Precious Plastic started from Dave Hakkens' interest to tackle plastic pollution. He designed four machines for recycling plastic on a small scale. These machines were part of his studies back in 2012 in the Netherlands. Throughout the years, Dave improved his designs, and more people joined him to make the machines more efficient. To date, the Precious Plastic Universe continues gaining a large following of people supporting their alternative recycling process.

 Inspired by the original design of Hakkens, in 2018 a few engineering students at Monash University decided to improve his designs and created Precious Plastic Monash.

Precious Plastic Monash has 50 engineering and design students who are educating the broader community on plastic recycling. They have created the Integration Unit, an integrated and reduced-size redesign of Dave's original machines. This improved unit fits on a one-meter squared pallet so that it can be easily transported around. It's perfect for engagement activities at markets and school events.

What is even more impressive is that Precious Plastic is an open-source community where all the designs and drawings created by Dave Hakkens and his team are available. If you want to get involved, you can download a kit from the Precious Plastic Monash website with the original designs plus the improvements achieved with the Integration Unit to start your journey.

Moreover, considering that some single-use plastics are particularly difficult or impossible to recycle, yet widely used every day, Precious Plastic Monash has founded a subdivision called Beyond Plastic to investigate biodegradable alternatives to traditional plastic products.

 The big goal for Precious Plastic Monash this year is to host an interactive and educational public exhibition in Melbourne to bring together families and individuals interested in sustainability to learn several ways to reduce their plastic consumption and make a positive impact. Therefore, if you don't want to miss out on this event and the incredible stuff PPM is working on, we highly encourage you to visit their website and social channels. https://www.facebook.com/preciousplasticmonash