ReCreateIt: Transforming Plastic Waste through Community-Led Manufacturing

ReCreateIt, led by re:3D, Inc. and partnering with Austin Habitat for Humanity (AHFH) ReStore, Georgia Tech, University of Texas at Austin, Western Sydney University (Australia) and the University of Wollongong (Australia), is developing a local circular economy by deploying a Gigalab– a sustainable manufacturing lab capable of repurposing plastic waste through fused granular fabrication (FGF) 3D printing.
ReCreateIt aims to divert at least 10,000 lbs of plastic waste from entering landfills, train at least 20 workers in advanced manufacturing and engage and educate more than 500 community members. In 2025 alone, over 3,300 lbs of plastics has been collected, and over 950 lbs has been processed and granulated for 3D printing. This workflow is supported by a Gigalab within a modified shipping container, which houses a GigabotX FGF 3D printer, a granulator, a material dryer, and more.
The ReCreateIt Gigalab installed at a ReStore in Austin, TX enables customers to design and purchase sustainable home goods 3D printed directly from recycled plastic collected on-site during ReStore operations. The team has made significant progress in 3D printing with commodity plastics, which is notoriously difficult due to warping, shrinkage, and poor adhesion. Notably, the team had great success printing functional objects such as vases, lampshades, step stools using locally sourced polypropylene (PP) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) without any chemical modifications to the feedstock. Despite inevitable challenges derived from the logistics and materials, the successful implementation of such operations, optimization of manufacturing processes, and ongoing experimentations are worth highlighting.
A part of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator in Track I: Sustainable Materials for Global Challenges, this project is also funded by CSIRO. The international collaboration is providing the research and development foundations for community-led sustainable manufacturing and a template for transferring the approach to broader community stakeholders.