Plastic recycling
training
Remote by the hour, on site by the day, or free.
Sustainable Design Studio offers a wide range of training and support to suit any budget. From remote sessions by the hour, in-person days at your workshop anywhere in the world, and a growing library of free guides and live webinars. Whether you are starting your own recycling business, building a community group, or just wanting to learn more about recycling plastics, we have a solution for you. And do not forget, every machine already ships with step-by-step build guides and detailed manuals.
A lot of this is already free
Every machine ships with full illustrated build guides and a user manual, with the resource library open to anyone. Plus you can book a free 30-minute call before even placing an order.
Plenty of teams get running on these alone. Paid training is available for customers who want to get started straight away with one-to-one guidance.
Step-by-step build guides
Every machine ships with a full illustrated build guide, photographed step by step. It is the same document our own workshop builds from.
User manuals
Comprehensive guides on operation, maintenance, troubleshooting and the day to day safety procedures. Written to get you started working with the machines from day one.
The resource library
A large and ever-growing database of guides covering plastic types, mould use, workshop setup, product design and full how-to builds. Available to everyone without a purchase.
A free 30-minute call
Email us the basics of your project and we can talk you through your plan for free. This service is available to all customers before they commit to anything.
Built around
your setup.
Although we offer a wide range of free resources and training to get you started, paid training allows us to support your bespoke project and help you prepare for any unique challenges you may encounter.
Tailored sessions can focus on a wide range of topics, from solving local geographical challenges to bespoke product types and optimised workflows, at a work pace you decide.
Three ways to get trained
Choose from remote sessions charged by the hour, in-person days on site, or simply access our free resources. We never charge per person, so feel free to get the most value by inviting as many people as you want to the session. Every route starts with the same free 30-minute call.
On demand video call sessions with our team, covering topics such as initial setup, machine use, product design, and business or project strategy. Booked in hour blocks, with no limit on how many members of your team can join.
- Charged by the hour
- As many people as you want
- Anywhere with a connection
We travel to your workshop, in the UK or internationally, and train your whole team on your own machines with your own material. We have run sessions in remote disaster zones and in city centre studios, so difficult sites are familiar ground. Travel, accommodation and food are billed separately, at cost.
- Charged by the day
- As many people as you want
- Plus 55p/mile in the UK, or flights overseas
Written guides, build documentation and live webinars, covering much of the same ground at your own pace.
- Guides and build documentation
- Live and recorded webinars
- No purchase needed
We build the session around your specific context
Context is more than the plastic you can collect. It is what you can get hold of and what you cannot, whether power is reliable, what you can afford to import, who you are trying to sell to, and what they will pay. A workflow built for a UK waste stream and a UK customer will not survive contact with the Caribbean or West Africa. Between us the team has spent more than 15 years setting up and supporting projects around the world, from remote disaster zones to dense urban workshops, so your situation is unlikely to be one we have not met before. We start there, then build the session around it. Pick the topics that matter to your project and we will scope around those.
Plastic identification
Learn to identify the range of plastics available around you, and understand how each one behaves once it is melted. Some flow easily and suit thin detailed parts, others are tough and better for something that has to survive being dropped. You will learn burn and float tests, recycling codes, and how to use the identification tool, so you can look at a bin and know what is worth collecting.
Plastic separation
Learn how to turn a mixed pile of waste into clean material your machines will actually run. Sorting by type and colour, washing, drying, and how finely to shred for each process. Contamination is the most common reason for poor quality products, so you will learn to spot it before you put it in the machine.
Machine use
Learn to run your machines properly. Setting temperatures for each plastic, judging cycle times, working out how much material a shot needs, preparing moulds, then the routine maintenance that keeps output steady. Hands-on if we are with you, screen-share on your own machine if we are remote.
Health and safety
Learn to run a workshop that is safe and well managed. Which plastics give off what when heated, how to extract fumes properly, handling hot tooling, the PPE that matters, and how to lay out a space so people are not reaching past a hot barrel. Best settled before the first machine is switched on.
Quality and consistency
Learn to make the same part twice. Keeping colour predictable batch to batch, spotting warping and sink marks and knowing what causes each, drying material properly, and deciding what is good enough to sell and what goes back in the shredder.
Product design
Learn to design products your machines and your material can actually make. Wall thickness, draft angles, how much a part will shrink as it cools, and why a shape that works in virgin plastic can fail in recycled. You will learn to choose products that suit the feedstock you have.
Business plans
Learn to work out what a part costs you and what it needs to sell for. Material, electricity, labour, mould life and realistic throughput, built into a picture of what a first year actually looks like. If the numbers do not work, we will say so.
Marketing
Learn how to sell what you make. Who your buyer is, what they care about, how to photograph a product so it looks worth the price, and which channels suit small-batch manufacturing. Recycled is a starting point, not a selling point on its own.
Case studies
Learn from projects around the world that have already done it. Our best success stories, what they made, what actually sold, and the tips and tricks we pick up from customers and pass on. Usually the fastest part of a session, because someone has almost certainly hit your problem already.
Machine buyers
Spend £10,000.
Get five days free.
Place a single order of £10,000 or more on machines and we will come to you for five days of in-person training at no charge for our time. Anywhere in the world.
An order this size usually means a project with people counting on it, a board to answer to, or a grant with milestones attached. You want to get it right, and we would rather put our time into making sure you do than take the same value off the invoice. Every customer has our support whatever they spend. This simply puts five days of it in your workshop from the start.
Five days on site
Five full days of in-person training at your workshop, with your machines and your material. You pay nothing for our time.
Who qualifies
A single order of £10,000 or more on machines. Get in touch before you order and we will confirm eligibility in writing.
What you cover
Travel, accommodation and food at cost, with receipts. Internationally that means flights. Domestically it means mileage and a room if the trip needs one.
How to claim
Mention it when you enquire. We will scope the five days around what your team needs before anything is booked.
What an on-site day costs
The day rate is our time, and it does not change with the size of your team. Everything else here is charged at cost, with receipts and nothing added on top. You can add it up yourself before you get in touch.
Travel and accommodation are quoted per trip once we know the location and the number of days. Nothing is booked until you have approved the total in writing.
| Day rate | Charged per day, whatever the size of your team |
|---|---|
| Minimum booking | One full day. We do not run half days on site, because the travel makes them poor value for you. If you need less than a day, it is best to use remote hours instead. |
| Mileage (UK) | 55p per mile, round trip from our Hartley Wintney HQ in Hampshire |
| Flights (international) | At cost, economy, booked by whichever of us you would rather handle it |
| Accommodation | At cost, only where the trip cannot reasonably be done in a day. |
| Food | At cost, per person per day, for any overnight trip. |
| Travel time | Not charged. You pay for the days we spend in your workshop. |
| Group size | Uncapped, on site or remote, at no extra cost. Bring everyone who is interested in the process. |
How booking works
We scope it before we quote it.
It starts with a free half-hour call, and nothing is charged until you have approved a quote. Tell us what your team already knows and what you need them to be able to do, and we will tell you how many hours or days that takes. Sometimes the answer is that the free resources will do it.
Free 30-minute call
Email us and we will talk it through for half an hour at no charge. Which machines you have or are about to buy, who will be running them, what plastics are around you, and what you want to make.
We scope it
After the call we come back with some recommendations: remote hours, on-site days, or just the free resources. If the library and the build guides already cover what you need, we will say so. That happens often.
You approve the quote
Rate, number of hours or days, and for on-site work an itemised travel estimate. Nothing is booked and nothing is billed until you have approved the total.
We train, then stay reachable
The session happens. Afterwards you keep our direct line for follow-up questions, which are not charged separately.
Start here, before you pay for anything.
Some teams never need a paid session at all. The written guides and build documentation cover setup, materials and first runs in the same detail we would cover them in person, and the free live webinars let you watch a demo and ask questions in real time. Work through these first and a paid session becomes a much shorter, much cheaper conversation.
Guide
Plastic types and recycling codes
Everything you need to know about the different types of plastics, their recycling codes, and how to work with each one.
Guide
3D printing vs injection moulding
A full breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of desktop injection moulding compared to 3D printing.
Guide
How to make recycled sunglasses
A complete step-by-step guide to making a pair of sunglasses entirely from recycled plastic, using the Injection Mini V2.
Events and speaking
Invite us to speak
We speak at conferences, universities, schools, maker festivals and industry events on desktop plastic recycling, circular manufacturing, and what happens when you try to turn waste into product at small scale. Talks, panels, workshops, or a machine running live on a stand, all drawing on more than 15 years of the team setting up projects in the field, from disaster response to established urban manufacturing.
If you are organising something and want one of us there, get in touch with the date, the audience and roughly how long you need. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.
What we cover
Desktop recycling technology, circular product design, running a small manufacturing operation, and the parts of it that are harder than they look.
Formats
Keynote, panel, hands-on workshop, or a working machine on a stand. Remote talks are fine and often quicker to arrange.
What it costs
It depends on the event, the travel and whether it is commercial. Schools and community events are treated differently from industry conferences, so it is worth asking.
Training questions, answered
What it costs, how it is scoped, and what happens if it is not right for you. Still unsure? Get in touch and we will reply within one working day.
Three ways to start
Book a free 30-minute call
Email us the basics of your project and we will give you half an hour, free.
Join a free webinar
Watch a live demo and ask questions. Free, and you can just listen if you prefer.
Book paid training
Remote by the hour or full days on site, scoped before we quote.