In Poltava, Ukraine, a team of medical students is using 3D printing to transform recycled plastic into functional laboratory and training equipment. The initiative, led by third-year medical student Anastasiia, emerged through UPSHIFT, a UNICEF-supported programme that helps young people develop community-focused projects.
While participating in workshops, Anastasiia and her teammates—Olha, Myroslava, Anna, and another Anastasiia—formed a group called Alium and joined an UPSHIFT cohort focused on environmental challenges in the Poltava region. As medical students, they were particularly interested in research linking microplastics to health risks.
“As medical students, we increasingly see evidence that microplastics play a significant role in the development of many diseases. People often don’t notice it or pay attention to it. But illnesses linked to microplastics are far more common than most people think,” says Anastasiia.
From Waste Education to Additive Manufacturing
The project began with an educational campaign to improve understanding of waste sorting and recycling. The team found that many people lacked basic knowledge of how plastic waste is processed or reused. After delivering eight sessions to around 150 participants, the team decided to move beyond awareness and demonstrate a practical use for recycled plastic.
Alium explored how plastic waste could be repurposed for additive manufacturing. The students visited educational spaces to learn how filament is produced and how 3D printers can fabricate functional parts. They then acquired equipment, established a small laboratory in Poltava, and began experimenting with recycled PET filament sourced from local waste.
“We work with PET bottles. They have special markings, usually on the bottom or side. Most of them are water or soda bottles. We already have a collection point in our dormitory, and students are happy to bring them,” she added.
Using 3D printing, the team has produced a range of components, including parts for a centrifuge and a lamp, microscope elements for research use, anatomical bone models, and dental training blocks for students to practise tooth preparation.
Affordable Alternatives to Commercial Models
All printed items are made from recycled plastic, addressing a shortage of affordable and accurate educational models in Ukraine. Factory-produced anatomical models are often expensive, degrade quickly, and may lack precision. By producing tools in-house, Alium enables low-cost, customized components that reuse waste while maintaining functional utility for education.
Interest in the project has grown within the university, with several departments exploring the creation of waste-sorting stations to supply material for additional 3D printed lab equipment. Alium’s work has also drawn attention from dental associations in Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi.
Looking ahead, Anastasiia envisions a broader network in which students from different cities contribute recycled plastic, share printable models, and collaborate on environmentally driven additive manufacturing projects. “I am driven by the desire to influence the environment I live in. I don’t believe the phrase that circumstances simply happen. I want to shape those circumstances myself. Projects and research work are my way of making real change possible,” she said.
While Alium’s lab shows practical innovation, it has limits. It can only print with recycled PET, restricting heat-resistant or specialized components. Printer size limits large or complex models, and recycled prints are less durable and precise than commercial equivalents. The project is also local, relying on student collections and volunteers, so wider adoption would need more infrastructure.
Turning Recycled Plastic into 3D Printing Material
A core constraint in sustainable additive manufacturing is how to source usable filament from waste plastic, without industrial recycling infrastructure. Recent developments show that ordinary makers, schools, and community labs can address this bottleneck with practical tools and workflows.
Projects like the open‑source Polyformer, which lets users convert discarded PET bottles into 1.75 mm filament that can run on desktop 3D printers. Community recycling initiatives such as GreenBatch’s program in Australia turn local waste streams into free filament for schools, showing that community‑level sorting and extrusion can feed usable feedstock into educational 3D printers without relying on large suppliers.
On the material science side, experimentation with planstic filament, which combines leaves and polymeric waste, illustrates that mixed waste streams can be transformed into biodegradable 3D printing materials.
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Featured image shows Anastasiia and her teammates—Olha, Myroslava, Anna, and another Anastasiia—formed a group called Alium. Photo via UNICEF
