With Wir stärken Mädchen, the German Children and Youth Foundation and the foundation "RTL - Wir helfen Kindern" have launched a program to promote girls in STEM professions. This year, Adorno Gymnasium Frankfurt took part in the project "Reclaiming Precious Plastic Future" in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.

At the first appointment, the students from the Adorno Gymnasium's environmental working group visited the Rüsselsheim Campus. Student Maike Lenz reported on her master's thesis and explained what studies at Hochschule RheinMain in Rüsselsheim are like, which subjects can be studied and how students are supported. The first samples of the plastic shredder were also produced and tests carried out.

2 kg of plastic recyclate with 60 pedal revolutions

This week, the bicycle shredder was assembled and put into operation by the students in the MakerSpaceLAP. With 60 revolutions of the pedals, approx. 2 kg of plastic lids from drinks bottles were processed into plastic recyclate using only the students' muscle power. The recyclate obtained in this way was experimentally processed into consumer goods. In the next step, the environmental working group plans to use it to make key rings or rulers with the school logo and sell them in the school store.

The presentation and handover of the shredder will take place on July 2 as part of the Adorno-Gymnasium summer festival.

Commitment and support

The project was realized pro-bono by Dr. Hans-Jürgen Neumann and his students Robert Wilczek (Biomechanics) and Hendrik Kunz (Design and Construction of the system), the members of staff Andreas Hannapel from the welding laboratory, Mirko Jäger and Dennis Hunter from the Makerspace as well as Prof. Dr. Markus Bender and Maike Lenz. Many thanks go to the company Metallbau Kunz in Trebur Astheim, which provided materials and supported the students in the Construction of the system, as well as to the "Vespafreunde Rüsselsheim" club, which collected over 5000 caps from drinks bottles as test material.

After the project is before the project

Dr. Neumann plans to continue the project alongside his activities to develop air filters for medical purposes and to implement it for Rüsselsheim schools. The focus will be on the development of a combined shredder-pyrolysis system for use in developing countries.