The results of the educational project on recycling plastics with the use of 3D printing technologies

9 january 2023

SIBUR took stock of the results of its educational 3D Academy project, that was carried out in 2022. 46 school students from Perm, Dzerzhinsk and Noyabrsk who had taken an active part in the project and presented the best research on polymer recycling, 3D printing and 3D design, were awarded memorable and useful prizes. The project was implemented within the framework of the corporate social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds.

The 2022 3D Academy project brought together students from grades 5 to 8 of Perm's SynTez School of Chemistry and Technology, Dzerzhinsk's Basic School No. 6, and Noyabrsk’s Yunet Center for Intellectual Development. In the course of the project, the children got introduced to the concept of sustainable development and learned about the various types of plastics and plastic waste and way of recycling them. The students also learned the basics of modern 3D printing technology. These competencies will be an important and timely supplement to the basic school curriculum and the study of basic subjects such as physics, mathematics, geometry, chemistry, and computer science.

By the end of the year, the students developed and presented to the contest’s committee their applied science projects on recycling PET into end products printed with the use of 3D printers. The committee assessed not just the quality of the resulting end-product, but also the potential for its use in everyday situations in the following categories: "The Most Applied Project", "The Audience’s Choice Award", "The Best Quality Printout", "The Most Original Work", and "The Most Conservative Work". For example, an office supplies support shaped as a robot won the award for the most original work whereas multicolored badge holders in the form of owls were recognized as the most applied project.

3D Academy’s top winners included 20 students from Perm, 11 from Dzerzhinsk, and 15 from Noyabrsk. On top of that, all students who had successfully completed the course were presented with certificates of completion of a 3D modeling course and received souvenirs with the logos of the event’s sponsor and of the project itself.

Nikolay Mironov, a technology teacher at SynTez school, thanked the event’s organizers and shared his plans for continuing to introduce his school students to the possibilities opened up by 3D-printing technologies:

The students acquired practical skills in recycling plastic bottles into filament for 3D printers and 3D pens, they learned the basics of using KOMPAS-3D software, learned how to design basic 3D products and send them on to a 3D printer for final printing. But that is not the end of our education. In the future, we will continue studying the hardware and software for 3D printing.

All participants of the 3D Academy will be offered the opportunity to master the skill of operating this equipment. The set includes a shredder for shredding second-hand plastic, an extruder for filament production, a winder, and a separate workbench for making filament out of plastic bottles. All these sets wore donated to participating schools.

The 3D Academy project covers several important aspects of SIBUR's social investment program all at once: fostering an environmental protection culture among children and youths, supporting education, popularizing scientific disciplines, and learning about modern technologies.
An undisputable advantage of the project is its format which is simply fascinating and engaging. 3D printing helps students develop an engineer’s approach to problem-solving and learn to give free rein to their imagination. The feedback that we get and our young participants’ results are a clear testament to that.

Elena Snezhko, head of the company’s social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds:

The 3D Academy project has already gained recognition in its host cities. For example, Noyabrsk’s Yuventa Center for Supplemental Education that had hosted the project, took part in a regional Clean Yamal contest and ended up taking the third place in the Eco-Education Program of the Year category for its special contribution to the implementation of environmental initiatives carried out during the Year of Ecology celebrated in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.