A mini Eiffel Tower made entirely out of recycled ocean waste has been erected near Lake Most in north Bohemia. The replica will be one of the centerpieces of the Olympic Festival, organized by the Czech Olympic Committee, taking place on the shores of the country鈥檚 largest pit lake during the Games.
The 12.5 meter tall Eiffel Tower, made out of approximately 800,000 recycled plastic bottles, which translated into 1.3 tons of ocean waste, was manufactured by a Czech start-up called 3DDen. The replica of the famous Paris landmark consists of more than 1,500 separate pieces, which were manufactured and partially assembled at the company鈥檚 workshop in Prague, before being brought to the festival site at Lake Most.
To process the ocean plastic into a 3D printer filament, experts from 3DDen had to come up with some special technology, explains the company鈥檚 CEO Jan H艡ebabeck媒: 鈥淲e call it OPET and it is plastic fished out of the ocean. You can’t tell at first glance or by touch that it is recycled plastic from seawater. The difference only becomes apparent during the printing process. The material requires very specific conditions for flow, temperature and cooling, but I won鈥檛 tell you any details, because that鈥檚 our production secret.鈥�