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Surprise recycling going 3D in 2024

City wins grant to turn plastic waste into products

Ethar Alali, managing director of Automedi, shows off some of the products his company’s 3D printers make with recycled plastic materials.

Courtesy Rachael Clifford

An average 3D printer that Automedi builds costs about $1,500. The company plans to rotate three of them in Surprise at the end of 2024 for customers to turn recycled plastics into other products.

Courtesy Rachael Clifford

A sorting facility grinds down recycled plastic items into a filament to use in 3D printers.

Courtesy Rachael Clifford

Curbside recycling is officially roaring back for city of Surprise customers in March.

But another effort set to go live later in the year could make 2024 the “Year of Recycling” across Surprise, and possibly other places in the West Valley.

The city won a $100,000 grant for a new recycling program that will turn plastic goods into just about anything residents can imagine made by a 3D printer.

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