Since 2016, the Rotterdam-based research and design studio The New Raw has been experimenting with using plastic waste to create public furniture. Through the 'Print Your City' project—which just launched its first Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece—the firm turns public waste into raw material that is then 3D printed into benches and other street furniture meant to enrich a place.

Equipped with a robotic arm and recycling facilities, residents can bring their plastic waste and design custom urban furniture, shaping the designs and uses of each unique object according to their needs. Residents can pick out the shape and the color for their piece as well as things like which public space to place it in or whether or not it might feature a bike rack or a tree pot. 

After settling on a design, Print Your City provides information on the quantity of plastic that will need recycling in order to generate enough raw material. Their initial prototype—which was halfway between tree pots, benches and street furniture—required 100 kg of plastic. For reference, the average EU citizen generates 31 kg of plastic waste a year. 

This could have a huge impact for Greece, where the excessive adoption of single-use plastic has been destroying the country's seabed. As Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki, the founders of the New Raw, explain "plastic has a design failure. It is designed to last forever, but often we use it once and then throw it away."

With Print Your City, the architects aim to create a closed loop for plastic that involves local communities and betters the built environment. Since launching in December 2018, already more than 3,000 different designs have been submitted. Working with the Greek municipalities of Thessaloniki, Ecorec, and Ogilvy, the project aims to recycle four tons of plastic waste, which roughly equates to the same amount produced by 14 family households in Greece.