[MUSIC] >> So in this video, we're going to be chatting with Sidhant Pai, the founder of the project Protoprint, which is actually setup in Pune, which is a city in India. And he has started this initiative where the plastic that gets recycled, the people who are recycling plastics in the streets are now able to look at converting some part of that plastic into the filament that gets used in 3D printers, which fetches them a lot better price for the product that they are recycling. Now most of the community that is recycling these plastics, they're obviously very, very low income, very poor people. So, this effort which provide a little bit more value for the work that they're doing creates an immense impact in their lives. So we'll hear from Sidhant to how we got involved in this project and what they've been able to do so far, and what are their visions for the future. >> I'm an environmental engineer by training. My academic interests are predominantly in climate change, environmental policy and air pollution. And over the last few years, I've been working on a social enterprise in India that works collaboratively with waste pickers to convert some of their plastic waste into 3D printer filament. I started work on Protoprint my sophomore year of college when we visited the dumpsite with my parents actually and it was a very impactful experience going to the dump, and actually seeing how the plastic was collected from the waste. The waste, because of foam in this community that goes through these garbage dumps collecting waste plastic from unsegregated waste and then they send the plastic to scrap dealers. But often, earning a very small amount of money for the very important work that they do. And I mean, when we visited it was very impactful, because it was very clear that they were extremely hard working and they were extremely important just from a recycling perspective, because they truly did form the base, but they weren't getting adequately compensated for the work that they did. We started thinking about ways that we could maybe potentially add value to the waste plastic at the dumpsite level and we started to talking to the cooperative in Pune called SWACH that has been working for years to organize waste, because, and to fight for their rights. At the time, my father and I were interested in 3D printing as a hobby. And so, we wondered if we could convert some of that plastic into 3D printer filament. The idea being that there's a significant value added in that process and a lot of value could be captured at the grassroots. And so we don't really have any formal kind of training in 3D printing or polymer engineering or anything that you might need for that process, but we hacked together a few machines that didn't work very well. But eventually, we treated on them and got to a point where they worked. They didn't work well, but they actually managed to convert some of the plastic to a very crude filament. At that point, we were fortunate to raise enough funding, so that we could actually partner with a local machinist. We could partner with scientists both in India and abroad to try and refine our process, improve our process and we formalized the partnership with SWACH without we would not be able to do anything that we do and we started a shared at the garbage dump in Pune, which is a city in India. And yeah, we've been working at the dump for almost two years. At this point, our direct impact on the community, I would say is not very large. I mean, we worked for about 40 waste, because to source the plastic. But I mean, Pune has well over 12,000 waste, because of which the 40s are quite a small number. But the idea is that if we are successful, there is a significant potential to leverage technology like this to add value at the grassroots. There are lot of different challenges. I think working with government is always a challenge. Our shed at the dump is all on government land. We have permission from the government to continue our operations, but it took some time to kind of get their permission. It took time to get electricity. It took time to get water. It took time to kind of set up the infrastructure and I think this is true with any bureaucracy. These things just take time, because there are a lot of checks and balances to make sure that we aren't trying to scam the government or we aren't trying to be disingenuous with our models. And so, that took time and then community organization takes time. I mean, again, we could not do what we do without SWACH. But even having the backing of someone like SWACH,, even with that, it takes time to work with the community. Explain what we're there for, what we're trying to achieve and why we would like to partner with them. And then there's the obvious aspect of the technology itself, it's kind of, it's all new, it's constantly maturing. Like I said, we didn't have any particularly strong background in any of this. So it was a very steep learning curve for us and there always times where we felt we were out of out of our depth, and weren't well qualified to deal with these technical problems. And unfortunately, we always found the right partner to take us that step forward. In that sense, we have been very fortunate. And then I think lastly, I mean, we are essentially trying to scrub the way that a lot of the recycling works in Pune. And so you will, I mean, right now, we like I said we are still in our pilot. So we don't process a lot of plastic as a percentage of the entire city, but we still do run into these large scrap dealers who who don't want us to kind of disrupt the things the status quo, because it significantly benefits them. I would say that, quite frankly, we aren't really experts in anything. I think our kind of value add comes from bringing a lot of people that know what they're doing together. I mean, in terms of, like I said, with the 3D printing aspect, we knew just enough to kind of go to the right people and ask for help and refine our process. We knew enough to go talk to SWACH and get that community organization in place. I mean, in terms of the local machinery, we went to, like our first machines were quite frankly not really up to any industrial standard and wouldn't be able to function on a day to day basis. And so, we hooked up with a local machinist. We sold him on the vision and he agreed to work with us at a discounted rate. And so I would say, it's definitely a humbling process. Just realizing how difficult it is to actually achieve to get things on the ground and I think the most important take away is that there are a lot of people that know what they are doing, and have been doing it for a very long time. And I think instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, it's often much more efficient to get the right partners together and try and figure out some sort of synergy rather than trying to do the exact same thing that they do. So we've been working on improving our human quality for a year and a half now, and we're making incremental progress. I would hope, we look in other ways that our grassroots distribute production models can work in a way that's inclusive and in a way that actually leverages the communities. So in other words, like with waste, because they really understand the different types of plastics, because this is their work day in and day out. So they understand what plastics are easily recyclable, which ones are not. And so leveraging that knowledge-based in a way that actually benefits that community, as opposed to having these centralized factories. If anyone's ever in Pune, I mean, they're always welcome to kind of come by. We're pretty open about our technology and process and I mean, they're welcome to see our set up. If people really do kind of get motivated to try and solve environmental issues or waste management issues or any social issue, I would say, just look at ways that you can start contributing today. And I think that the cool thing in a waste that there are always ways that you can contribute right now, you just have to kind of actively look for them. [MUSIC]
