Ideally, this project should be able to run indefinitely so long as there is a small flow of funding available. As the project is ramping up, there will need to be a lot of oversight of the project to get it fully functional. There will need to be a large amount of community outreach to establish relationships with maker spaces and labs on campus to set up sources of recyclable materials. There will also be a lot of work to set up the workspace and create safety guidelines and operating procedures as well. Once these relationships and documents are developed most will only need to be updated infrequently. After this, the current employees would only have to spend the majority of their time on the day-to-day operations of the project, focusing on record-keeping, collecting recyclable materials, processing the materials into usable filaments, and redistributing the newly created materials. The more streamlined functionality of the project will allow more senior members to train new junior members. This will keep the project running even after the initial students' employees graduate. With only a small amount of funding to sustain employee salaries and operating costs, after establishment, the project will be able to carry on for many years to come even with student workers graduating. This would only cost about ~$1600/quarter (assuming $16/hour, 5hours/week, and 9weeks/quarter. This is expected to increase as Washington state minimum wage laws increase with the cost of living) to have two undergraduate students managing the equipment and outreach of the program after the initial 6-month initialization phase of the project. We will also submit this undergraduate position as a work-study position, applying for federal funding to help supplement the salary costs of the undergraduates working for this project. Assuming continued funding and generated income from the sale of the recycled materials, we will be able to continue this project so long as we can find willing participants for this project.
Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF)
3D Printer Material Recycling Program
Year:
Amount Awarded:
$8,910
Potential Funding Reductions:
Ideally, if the 2 students across 3 quarters qualify for work-study, we would be able to reduce the overall request by 40%. Only hiring 1 student would reduce the overall request by 25%. Doing both would reduce the overall request by 43%.
Project Longevity:
Project status:
Active: Planning phase