Drinks brand Coca-Cola and musician Will.i.am have developed a 3D printer that produces objects using filament made from recycled plastic bottles.
The Ekocycle 3D printer was created as a collaboration between drinks brand Coca-Cola and Will.i.am, who is also chief creative officer at technology company 3D Systems.
"As humans we create hundreds of millions of tonnes of waste every year," says the Black Eyed Peas frontman in a promotional video for the product. "A lot of it is cheap PET plastic."
The white and red desktop machine prints users' designs with filament cartridges in a range of colours made from recycled PET plastic.
"This machine prints in post-consumer plastic," Will.i.am says. "This means that you can take [a] water bottle and print bracelets, robots, vases and shoes."
One cartridge contains 25 per cent post-consumer recycled materials – the equivalent of three 568-millilitre PET plastic bottles.
Ekocycle also features a colour touch-screen interface embedded into the top of the chassis.
3D Systems appointed Will.i.am as its chief creative officer in January, with the goal to "mainstream 3D printing". This followed the company's 2011 acquisition of Freedom of Creation – one of the first design studios to experiment with 3D printing.
Janne Kyttanen, co-founder of Freedom of Creation and 3D Systems creative director, previously told Dezeen he believes that one day everyone will have easy access to 3D printing, and that people will become more interested in printing objects than buying them. Since then, 3D Systems has also launched the world's first 3D printers for food and a handheld 3D scanner.