Live Lecture: Upcycling Plastic Waste for a Circular Economy

Edgar Mejia is the co-founder of IDEA 1.61, a social enterprise which upcycles plastic waste into material for 3D printing. In 2019, Edgar presented this innovative process at the Youth Climate Change Summit at the United Nations in New York. He has conducted research in the field of materials science at various universities around the world including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Princeton University (USA), The Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), United Arab Emirates University and Khalifa University (UAE). In 2018, Edgar received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at UIUC and he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in materials science at Khalifa University.

Hernan Torres was born in Mexico where he studied international business. In 2012, he settled in the UAE and his passion for the wellbeing of the environment impulse him to look for an impactful way to raise awareness about plastic pollution. Therefore, he joined Precious Plastic, an international online community, which main objective is to change the perception about plastic as a waste to a precious material that can be transformed and reused. To make the learning more interactive, Hernan build two home-scale recycling machines with local assistance. With these machines, he has organized more than 10 workshops in diverse schools, galleries and events.