Precious Plastic, my little baby.

I worked on Precious Plastic since early 2015 and, together with Dave Hakkens, took it from a small idea to the global reality it is today. In 2022 Precious Plastic helps tens of thousands of people to recycle plastic in 100+ countries. The website receives around 1 mln visitors per year while our Youtube channel has about 15 mln views every year. With the Precious Plastic Bazar (our own marketplace) processing more than € 300.000 every year.

Design Director.

Through the years, as the project evolved, I have covered multiple roles and responsibilities in Precious Plastic. However, I have kept my main focus, ambitions, accountability and personal growth in the digital realm.

For the past 6 years I have been the person ultimately responsible for the 3 main Precious Plastic websites (and all of their iterations over the years), the many campaigns reaching millions of people and the friendly yet professional identity Precious Plastic has become know for.

This is what brings me true joy, to communicate simply a complex project. And helping thousands of people to tackle big global problems along the way.

Precious Plastic, what again?

With Precious Plastic we want to increase the amount of plastic that is recycled around the world. To do this we empower tens of thousands of people around the world with everything they need to start recycle plastic locally.

We develop machines to recycle plastic and share how to replicate them open source online, for free.  So everyone can rebuild them and start recycling in their neighbourhood transforming plastic waste into valuable products. Plus we design and develop platforms to help global collaboration between thousands of people.

We also provide business tools to help run a business from recycling plastic. People can buy & sell these recycled products, machines and parts on the Precious Plastic Bazar (our marketplace).

My journey within Precious Plastic.

As you can imagine over the course of the years I have covered multiple roles within Precious Plastic. Tons of learning and personal growth along the way.

I begun working on Precious Plastic all the way back in 2015. Back then I started working on the identity and logo. This is the predecessor of the current one but also where the plastic bag flag idea originated.

That same year I was also responsible for the UX & UI of the original website. Back then we were working hard on making the website incredibly lightweight for slow connections in developing countries (our main audience we thought). Within a few weeks from launching the website was receiving millions of visitors from around the world.

As the project grew into a global reality my responsibilities grew accordingly. Over the years I managed dozens of people and projects in many areas. Digital products, online campaigns, filmmaking, exhibitions, strategy and more.

Some numbers

1000+ recycling workspaces in 150+ countries working with Precious Plastic

380+ tons of plastic recycled in 2019

€ 2 m global annual revenue from all Precious Plastic workspaces

€ 5 m per year raised by Precious Plastic workspaces

€350K+ processed on the Precious Plastic Bazar in 2021

100K+ downloads of Precious Plastic kits in 2021