Project Seafood, creating waves of change on our shores

Living up to the famous words, a better world starts with yourself, Fabian and Jennifer started Project Seafood, their vision on how to change this industrial revolution into a sustainable one as part of a circular economy. So how would they bring this vision to life? Well, the goal for Project Seafood was to travel along the Mediterranean coastline of Spain all the way down to Morocco – with the aim of collecting household plastic waste from the beaches and transforming it into 3D printed objects.

Packed and equipped with all the necessities for a few months, they drove their Citroen Jumper from one beach to the next. And when we say necessities, we mean they took a shredder, Noztek extruder and an Ultimaker Original. It was vitally important to the project that they had a 3D printer that was durable, easily maintainable and highly reliable. A printer that wouldn’t let them down as they racked up the miles.

What made the Ultimaker Original an even better choice was that during preparation, they checked out YouMagine and found a variety of valuable modifications. Fabian added a customized heated chamber, a dust filter and installed a bigger nozzle. And it’s just as well he did as in their mini-van their Ultimaker Original was subjected to rocky roads, salty sea winds and freestyle, home-made filament… sometimes with sand… but it never stopped running!

I take my hat off to Fabian and Jennifer, who’ve made a real difference helping to take away the fear of plastic waste and turning it into something positive and useful – cleaning beaches and creating useful objects. They join a group of motivated individuals who are using 3D printing to make a positive change such as Better Future Factory and Refil.

I don’t think this is the last time we’ll be hearing about Project Seafood. Their Ultimaker Original survived round one as did their ambition and dreams. And as there’s still so much plastic washing up on our shores, watch this space for round two!