From the perspective of our Founder & Product Developer, Dustin Bowers, swipe to see how PLAEX came to be.

  • The inspiration began with seeing the waste crisis firsthand in the construction industry, along with the lack of skilled laborers'.

  • How can we solve both problems? Inter-locking eco-bricks!

  • Planning the shredder axel

  • Playing with the blade orientation and making the first big mistake

  • Had to make some modifications. PLASMA CUTTERS ARE AWESOME! Got a sunburn from it 😎

  • Stacking the shredder blades, should have gone with this in the first place.

  • Testing the fit of the shredder parts

  • Working on the post layouts to mount the bearings, this was a little tricky

  • Clamps to the rescue! Finally getting the axle bearing lined up

  • Bearing posts welded into position

  • Shredder finally assembled, it took a couple months. Now to power it!

  • Heat couplings arrived from somewhere in the world

  • Finally got the custom ends from the Machinist 🥳

  • Mapping the extruder hopper

  • Hopper slot cut, some tough steel

  • Trying my hand at welding, was a little messy but its solid. Gotta keep leaning new skills!

  • Preparing the old feed auger for the new extruder

  • Preparing the shredder hopper from and old farm feed hopper

  • Catch basket for the shredder and cabinet out of the rest of the feed hopper

  • Finally starting to look like something

  • Another late night

  • Finally shredding our first plastic

  • DON'T DROP THE CAMERA!

  • Beautiful shredded "garbage"

  • WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil), My fuel of choice for the past 9 years. Its what ol'Rudolf Diesel invented them for

  • Finally got a small investment, upgraded from a canopy tent to a shipping container! 🥳 Also love the name on it, seems perfect for a recycling workshop

  • Finally operational and set up in our shipping container shop

  • IT'S WORKING! Oh, it broke again. Plastic is tough stuff, upgrading parts again, but the shredder works awesome!

  • I am now an amateur mechanical electrical engineer 👨‍🎓 The extruder works like a charm!

  • The FIRST brick!

  • It's not petty, but it's tough!

  • Experimenting with red

  • Fast forward many months of hard work with a local fabrication shop (ARCD) We now have upgraded equipment and a brick mould!

  • It worked!

  • More hard work and upgrades, we now have beautiful connecting bricks!

  • The team has grown and we are now moving into our pilot facility! Stay tuned!

  • The First Build! A well cover using our PLAEX bricks.