Plastic Hack Manly

UPDATE:  The Plastic Hack Project is not going ahead. Sadly, it's an early Coronavirus casualty. The pandemic has created huge uncertainty around community activities and the Project’s financial partners, local business operations and school programming have all been affected. In the end, the Plastic Hack project wasn't able to get over the line. 

If there is a post Corona revival, Good For Manly will agin provide support. It would have been a fabulous project for the environment, and our Manly community as a whole. 

24/2/2020: The plastic shredder has finally found a Northern Beaches home. And it's here in Manly, in the new Royal Far West precinct.  The children's charity has partnered with the Plastic Hack Project to create an environment & educational hub on Manly oceanfront, anchored by the plastic shredding machine. School children will be able to see & participate in the transformation of rubbish plastic from the beach, into filaments and beads that can then be transformed, via 3D printing etc, into vases, hats, benches, or almost anything. 


​Sponsors are still needed before the project can launch in the next few months. Please see prospectus below. And contact Jude Furniss at [email protected]

​1/1/2019:    Plastic debris will be transformed to useful plastic products in a game-changing set-up coming to the Northern Beaches this year.  The key is a plastic shredding machine that will convert plastic rubbish to small fragments, to be used as building products, filaments or cord, or 3D printed into almost anything.

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The project will be run by Surfrider Foundation Manly, which has received a $50,000 State Government grant.  Surfrider will use the funds to set up a community-based Ocean Recovery Hub, centred around a Shruder - a compact, industrial machine that shreds plastic. The grant will also cover a 3D printer and appropriate training. 

As well as recycling plastic waste, Surfrider aims to deliver

• Interactive waste education programs at school, community and corporate level, including mobile displays at community events
• Micro-business opportunities for manufacturers working with recycled plastic
• A platform for local businesses to offset their plastic use
• Diversion of plastic waste from landfill, and from inappropriate recycling streams.   ​

​Images: Shruder machine; plastic shreds

In early 2019, Surfrider Foundation Manly will be looking for suitable venues and partners to establish the Ocean Recovery Hub and start to ‘close the loop’ on the plastic economy. ​​  Contact Surfrider Manly here.