The brief for the James Dyson Award is simple: design something that solves a problem. And this year's Global Sustainability Winner does just that. Polyformer is an open-source machine that recycles waste plastic (like plastic bottles) into 3D printer filament. Swaleh Owais from McMaster University, Canada, and Reiten Cheng from ArtCenter College of Design, USA, joined forces to create Polyformer, which aims to solve two problems: recycling plastic waste and accessibility to 3D printing. Polyformer takes one standard 500ml plastic bottle and produces three meters of 3D printer filament.

Plastic recycling is a worldwide issue, with just over a quarter of total bottles recycled and it taking upwards of 450 years to degrade. And 3D printer filament can be costly for many creators and hobbyists, but it's especially true for those in developing countries.

Using the custom bottle cutter mechanism, the user cuts a plastic bottle into a continuous strip, which is then fed into the Polyformer extruder. After the filament is extruded from the nozzle, it is cooled and wrapped around the spool, which can then be inserted into any FDM 3D printer. Polyformer is an open-source project with all CAD, code, and building instructions available on the team’s discord website. It was designed so it could be put together by makers with a manual.