Polyformer is a 3D-printed, open-source machine that recycles PET water bottles into filaments for 3D printers. It's a cheap and compact solution as opposed to traditional recycling methods. By using a slicing tool built with stacked bearings to cut the water bottle into a long and consistent ribbon, the user can then feed the ribbon into the repurposed 3D printer hotend which thermoforms the ribbon into a 1.75mm filament as it goes through the brass nozzle with corresponding hole size. The user can then mount one end of the filament on the red motorized spool to automize the process. The spool can be easily taken off to be transferred and used on a 3D printer. The 3D printer can print the PET filament into other products.

Polyformer provides a simpler solution to water bottle recycling. It only costs $200 and can be easily replicated by makers in most countries, as opposed to the traditional recycling methods which are costly to put together. 300+ Polyformers are currently being built in 50+ countries across the world, building a large, decentralized network of water bottle recycling points. The filaments it produces are being used to make other essential products in countries in Africa. This is critically useful in countries in Africa where products are not accessible(a roll of filament costs a person's monthly rent in Rwanda whereas it costs a lunch in the state). Polyformer is also easy to build and transport thanks to the fact it's designed to use mostly 3D printed parts and some off-the-shelf 3D printer parts, making it an ideal tool for users to build decentralized recycling points.

Polyformer is designed to be open-source, designed to be 3D printed, and put together by humans. It's also designed to leverage fdm 3D printing technology to achieve features that are otherwise hard to make possible. With the GPL3.0 open-source license, anyone can distribute, modify, and sell Polyformer, as how the project is designed to be. Currently, there are 2 distributors of Polyformer kits.

Moreover, we established a community of 3500+ people over 10 months. We built a closed loop with the end users by directly talking to them, understanding their pain points, changing the design to solve their pain points, and letting them print the parts to test and repeat. This method quickly advances the design and forms a unique relationship between the designer and the end users that is rarely seen in traditional product development.

Polyformer is designed to be 3D printed with FDM technology, thus its form is largely driven by the printability of the parts. The modular architecture allows users to easily swap out parts and modify the machine to their liking. The unique vertical L shape allows the users to easily interact with the machine and also minimizes the amount of space that the machine takes. The outer shell can be easily opened thanks to the geared mechanism, it can be closed the same way to keep the user away from touching the hotend. The entire machine was printed using recycled PET bottles which gives a nice translucent look to it. The swirly pattern on the spool not only self-locks the spool when it's pulling but also allows the spool to not get stuck when it's mounted to 3D printers. The use of red accent color highlights the interactive components.