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RISN Incubator Trash Hack seeks to redesign the future of plastics

In a 24 hour weekend-long event, Trash Hack seeks to train new entrepreneurs and rethink solid waste, guided by experts in solid waste and entrepreneurship.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by the year 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. This shocking statistic begs the question, “What can we do about it?” That’s why we created Trash Hack – a new type of hackathon to reimagine the future of plastics. In the course of a short weekend, this hackathon aimed to create hacks – or disruptive and entrepreneurial solutions – to address plastic waste.

On September 29th, 46 students – across seceral different majors – set forth to challenge plastic waste, and design solutions ranging from software solutions to physical products. After the opening ceremony, and a speech from Dr. Thomas Seager, an Associate Professor at ASU, that was half a motivational speech and half a call to action, students set forth to design a solution that re imagines the future of plastics.

After forming teams based on united ideas, students sought for inspiration and advice from experts in solid waste. During the plastics panel, Alana Levine from ASU Facilities Zero Waste Initiative and Lucas Mariacher from the City of Phoenix’s Solid Waste Department described the problems with plastic waste, and the different types of waste feedstock.

Throughout the course of the weekend, student teams had access to hardware tools – like Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, and Sensors – and prototyping tools, including 3D printers, to make their ideas happen. Teams also had access to expert mentors and workshops to help them learn skills in programming and 3D design.

Fun events to take a break from hacking were mixed throughout the weekend, like a four square tournament. Saiman Shetty, an ASU grad who works at Tesla and his own startup, Hygeia – as well as Roza Ferdowsmakan, local tech attorney, who is working on an app called bites to connect foodies, chefs, and farmers – came to lead a late night storytelling series on entrepreneurship.

Team Recycleanse, winner of the Trash Hack.
At the end of the weekend, the winning team – Recycleanse – took home a Makerbot 3D printer for their idea to use hardware and software to provide data analytics to decrease contamination in recycling. The remaining teams took home entry into RISN Incubator’s Design Challenge to advance their ideas:

  • Cliffhangr’s idea to create an outdoors brand and climbing products that use upcycled plastics to save the environment while creating quality gear
  • SmartBin’s plan to use camera sensors in trash bins to collect data on recycling, and incentivize good recycling with data
  • Peker’s idea to use hard to recycle plastic films to make contraceptives
  • AgroCode’s project to create a vertical garden using upcycled K Cups and PVC pipe