Plastic Recycling Machines

In 2017, a year before Guacamole Airplane was born, Ian Montgomery & intern zero Tom Kochtitzky collaborated on a series of experimental plastic recycling machines based of open-source plans by Dave Hakkens and the Precious Plastic Movement.

As packaging designers, our practice is inevitably responsible for mountains of often unrecyclable garbage, and with plastic recycling in the US very limited in what types and colors and resins are recycled (pretty much only clear and white rigid PET and HDPE), we were interested in exploring new avenues of creating value out of a waste stream.

We built a plastic shredder, injection molder, compression molder, and extruder using mostly scrap metal, craigslist ovens, and inexpensive off the shelf electronics. 

With the plastic machines we collaborated on projects as varied as making recycled plastic jewelry with 5-7 year olds, to wall tile installations made from recycled hardhats, to somehow getting paid by the government to go to music festivals and put on live recycling demos (thanks Donald!)

Full List of Exhibitions and Collaborations:  

• Oregon Eclipse Festival 2017

• A/D/O gallery in Brooklyn 2018

• South San Francisco Dept of Parks 2019

• George Washington High School 2019

• Plastic Dome 2020

• Hold Fast Japanese Joinery Workshop 2022

• Exploratorium & Surfrider 2022

• DPR Construction 2023

• San Francisco Design Week 2023

And for designers or brands interested in collaborating on this type of work, former Guacamole Airplane employee Tom Kochtitzky has continued to pursue the precious plastic work, building a 5’ x 10’ sheet press up in Oregon with Local Plastic able to create beautiful terrazzo recycled plastic sheets for furniture. Tom also independently consults on machine builds.