NU - Pura Playa

Pura Playa, a project of ESW-NU, works to bring plastic waste reduction and recycling to campus through engineering, outreach, and activism efforts. Our desire to make a campus-wide impact started with the design and branding of educational flyers on plastic water bottles, which are now permanently featured at 20+ water bottle refilling stations around campus. We routinely engage with students, both engineers and non-engineers alike, to ensure we can reach as many of the general and interdisciplinary sustainability communities on campus as possible. You’ll see us around campus and in residential communities delivering our message on plastic waste in interactive and thought-provoking ways.

Most recently, we’ve been working to bring the international community-based Precious Plastics initiative to campus. We’ve partnered with capstone group seniors to make significant progress towards plastic recycling and repurposing machines, as we work within our group to design molds of novelty and dorm items complementary to the use of these machines. We hope to be long-term stewards of these machines and a plastic recycling makerspace where the Northwestern community is welcome to learn about and experience this process.

This project has been placed on an indefinite hold as of Spring of 2021.