A student club project that combines sustainability with innovation to create social impact and reduce plastic waste won a national competition in July.
Enactus UWA presented Polymer to Purpose, a project to repurpose recycled high-grade polymers from decommissioned subsea infrastructure into 3D printing filament for real-world applications, which won the Early-Stage award at the 2025 Enactus Australia National Competition.
The project is partnering with TechWorks – a collaboration hub between Woodside Energy and The University of Western Australia – and large format 3D printing manufacturer Hyperion Systems.
Over the mid-year semester break, a team of nine UWA students travelled to Sydney for the competition including Enactus UWA president Nhu-Y Nguyen-Tran, a Master of Marketing student, and vice-president Jack MacKinnon, a Bachelor of Philosophy student.
The Guild club team demonstrated the power of partnerships to meet sustainable development goals with their project to repurpose recycled high-grade polymers for 3D-printed tiny homes and affordable prosthetics designed for low-resource settings.
“We’ve been working on the concept for about five months, and in that time, we’ve conducted extensive research, outreach and early partner discussions to validate our ideas,” Nhu-Y said.
The students are now looking to actively transition into the scaling and prototyping phase, in the hope the concept can be turned into a tangible reality.
“We’ve recently gained the interest of a Member of Parliament, who has expressed support for the tiny homes side of the project, exploring the homes as a potential solution to the regional housing crisis,” Jack said.
The team has also partnered with Enitiate, a UWA student engineering consultancy, which is helping design early concepts for the tiny homes.
“While it may take time, all systems are go,” Nhu-Y said. “We’re building strong foundations, gaining momentum and everything so far points towards making this vision a reality.”
Jack encourages everyone to get involved in clubs, interact with the UWA community and get the most out of student life.
“This project is probably the most passionate I've been about anything I've done at university for a long time," Jack said.
“You get to meet people that you wouldn't otherwise – students from different courses than yourself who have different perspectives.”
Nhu-Y said that being part of a club was complimentary to what you learned at university and could help students get ready for life after study.
“It can prepare you to work in an industry because you gain confidence, planning and presentation skills,” she said.
“Working with industry clients, on a project of this magnitude is a pretty rare opportunity for a university student.”
Enactus UWA will represent Australia at the Enactus World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand in September.