Students build toilet from waste plastic using 3D printing. Win $100,000 prize.

A team of three students from Washington University in Seattle have built toilet from waste plastic to win the $100,000 3D4D challenge. The challenge was aimed at using 3D printing technologies to solve the problems in the developing world. Matthew Rogge, one of the team members presented their project in the final round of the competition had come up with the idea of building toilets from plastic while he was working on the irrigation and sanitation systems with US Peace Corps in Ghana, Panama and Bolivia. Matthew got frustrated with the limited resources he had and decided to follow 3D printing technologies as he embarked on post-graduate studies after returning to the United States.



The 3D printer designed by the team has been named 'Big Red' and uses shredded plastic as the primary raw material for the toilet. The machine melts the plastic and then fires the pulp through a nozzle to build the 3D model; the action is similar to creating icing on the cake but a little more complicated, of course. The team recently used the Big Red machine to build a boat using recycled drinks containers and participated in a boat race in Seattle and scored second.

The team proposes giant 3D printing machines to build toilets and rainwater harvesting systems for the developing world. Matthew says that he feels lucky to have an opportunity to turn his dreams into reality and taking out plastic from the waste stream. We wish the team all the best and look forward to more such projects.

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