What's Happening in Seaford, VIC…

Students at Eastbourne Primary School are supporting a program that will turn the plastic tops of bottles into prosthetic limbs and hands.

The students have given themselves the goal of collecting one million bottle tops which will be used by the Seaford-based not-for-profit company, Envision to turn into artificial limbs. The limbs will be given to children in third world countries.

School principal Stephen Wilkinson wants the whole community to become involved, and encourages interested people to collect and donate bottle tops with the numbers two or four found inside the caps, which indicate that they are recyclable.

The school became interested in the program after being visited by Saun Teer from Envision. He explained to the children how 3D printing services can create artificial hands from the bottle tops. The recyclable plastic is extruded to create a filament that is functional for use in 3D printing.

The school children have partnered with the Seawinds Community Hub to collect the plastic tops and hope to save possibly thousands of plastic tops ending up as waste in landfill.

Teer has said donations will make it possible for further equipment to be purchased to continue with the program and hopes to create 100 prosthetic hands which will then be donated to children who are in need in developing countries.