Entrepreneur turns trash to gold by making 3D- printer filaments.

A new startup plans to help waste pickers earn more by turning plastic waste into a more valuable product 3-D printing filament. The company is turning trash to gold by buying trash and making a component of 3D printer. They produce the plastic thread-like material that 3-D printers use instead of ink. Recycling plastic bottles into filament can help waste pickers increase their incomes by as much as 20 times.The startup will launch in Dar es Salaam and plans to expand to other cities. Around the world, around 40 million waste pickers currently earn less than $2 a day for their work. The demand for the filament is growing a one forecast suggests that 3-D printer sales will double each year for the next few years. By 2019, 5.6 million 3-D printers will sell in a year.The company is working on various models to pay waste pickers. The value increase for them is around 20 times what they make now from the plastic they sell, but that's not the best way to go about impact—giving one waste picker 20 times as much as he makes now. The company is looking into finding ways to either prolong the impact—give them a sustained level of income—or spread it out over a larger group. The company plans to expand to various cities they hope to locate near their biggest markets.The company thinks that developing countries will eventually also become bigger markets for the product, 3-D printing objects that are currently shipped in from elsewhere. See more