Lionel Taito-Taaalii Matamua

Renewing Materials – 3D Printing and Distributed Recycling Disrupting Samoa’s Plastic Waste Stream (2015)

Ocean borne plastic is considered one of our most serious pollution problems since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first predicted and documented in the 1980’s. Born in New Zealand and with strong ties to the Pacific, Lionel Taito-Matamua experienced this first-hand during a family gathering in Samoa where he was taken aback at the alarming amount of plastic waste – from the micro to the macro – littering this seemingly idyllic environment. The situation has direct economic implications for Pacific nations who rely on healthy marine environments as a source of sustenance and income, as well as a very tangible asset for tourism.

Given the scale of the problem it is unlikely that it will be resolved by any single solution, but as a young industrial design student surrounded by emerging 3D printing technologies and processes, Lionel saw an opportunity not only to address the problem, but also to give back to his community.

Using Samoa as a case study, he proposed that distributed recycling combined with 3D printing offers an opportunity to repurpose and add new value to this difficult waste stream. It also offers potential to engage diverse local communities in Samoa by combining notions of participatory design, makerspaces and ‘wikis’ of parts, with traditional Samoan social concepts such as ‘Fa’a Samoa’, or the Samoan way and sense of community. Field work in Samoa established the scope of the issue where landfills, pit burial and illegal burning are common ways of waste disposal, while inadequate infrastructure and recycling systems is seeing ever increasing amounts of plastic waste entering oceans from land. Interviews with different stakeholders such as Government, waste management businesses, the arts and crafts community and education providers helped identify potential collaborative partners and product areas as well as the different plastic waste streams.