[ Backlog - This log was adapted from my Patreon, to fill in the details about how this project has developed over the years. Check the link for the full post, and if you appreciate this project, consider supporting it! ]

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that the Hackaday Prize is a big deal for me. Way back in the Spring of 2018, the prompt for the first round of the Hackaday Prize was "Design the best plan possible for the boldest idea you  can consider. No prototypes are necessary for this challenge, only pictures, charts and theory."

"Game on!" I thought. So I pitched them the boldest idea I could consider - An entirely trash-powered recycling center that turns waste biomass into biochar and energy, and uses that energy to shred and print waste plastic into 3D objects, such that the system has a metabolism and effectively "eats" trash, just like a living organism.

I dubbed this theoretical trash-eating robot idea "the Metabolizer", and it won $1000 and was selected as a first-round finalist, making it eligible to be considered for the grand prize. BUT, to win the grand prize, you needed to produce a working prototype. Pictures, charts, and theories were not enough.

"Welp..." I thought. The theory was fairly sound. Biomass contains a lot of energy, and shredding and recycling plastics doesn't take all that much energy. "Trash" is made up primarily of recyclable plastics, and waste biomass that can be burned for energy, so if you collected enough trash, and figured out a way to generate a little bit of electricity and whole lot of heat from it, surely you could recycle at least some plastic waste into something new.

But, "how do you actually do that?" was the $50,000 question, and at the time I didn't have a great answer. I spent the entire summer of 2018 trying to answer that question. In less than 6 months, my goal was to figure out how to generate electricity from biomass like cardboard trash and woodchips, and use it to power my Precious Plastic shredder and feed it to a 3D printer that would print directly from the flakes. I didn't know how to do any of it.

By the time the October deadline rolled around, I had made some compelling progress, but I had definitely not come up with a working prototype.

This was the best print I had ever gotten out of the Trash Printer by the time the deadline came, and then went, in October 2018, and I wasn't selected as a finalist in the grand prize round.

So, when I saw that the theme of one of this years challenges was "Reuse, Recycle, Revamp," I though that this might be my chance for a re-match.

I submitted my full documentation for the Trash Printer Version 3, and yesterday I learned that I was selected as a finalist, and that the Trash Printer will be considered for the Hackaday grand prize this fall!

So, game on...again!

I want to thank all of my Patrons for making this happen! The only reason I've been able to do this is because I know that I can count on a monthly budget. I could not do this without your support. Thank you!

Stay tuned!