Italian Students Create Vending Machine That Turns Trash Into Phone Cases

What should we do with plastic trash? Turn it into phone cases, according to one group of high school students in Sicily. The team invented a 3D-printing vending machine that recycles plastic bottles into new objects like phone cases, according to Upworthy.

Called MyProGeneration, the vending machine prototype won AXA Italy’s Social Impact Award in June. It grinds plastic bottles down to pellets that can be melted for use in a 3D printer:

Screenshot via YouTube

Here's what one of the final results looks like:

The machines seem perfectly suited to high schools, where students could put their desire to upgrade their phones' look regularly to good use by forcing them to recycle in the process. Theoretically, the machine could be used to make much more than phone cases and could be redesigned to spit out other plastic objects. According to the student company’s Facebook, there are currently four machines out in the world.

[h/t Upworthy]All images courtesy MyProAction via Facebook unless otherwise notedKnow of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.