Avenues Students Are Revolutionizing Global Waste Management

Did you know that plastic outweighs all the animal life put together on Earth?

Based on this, our students developed the Nibbler Project. At the heart of the project is a machine called the Nibbler, which students created to revolutionize our relationship with waste and help combat the waste crisis.

Using the Nibbler, households worldwide can convert waste into new objects by grinding up solid waste, and transforming the grounds into a new filament that can be 3D printed.

As part of a World School,  our students have the opportunity to participate in truly global projects. The Nibbler project started in São Paulo and later, engineers from the Avenues R&D team joined the group to help with patent and prototype development. Students from our other campuses also joined the team.

In 2022, the project participated in the Climate Launchpad, which received more than 2,150 entries from more than 55 countries. The top three teams from each national final were selected for the regional finals, and from these six regional finals, the best 70 teams were selected. Nibbler was the only Brazilian startup that reached the global final.

In addition to an incredible learning opportunity, projects like this provide global exchanges and enable deep cultural immersion for visiting students. Avenues New York students came to São Paulo to meet the peers they had been collaborating with virtually, and to work on Project Nibbler.

As a revolutionary, student-led project, Nibbler is a great example of design thinking and innovation in action. By reimagining the entire recycling system, our students have formulated new ideas to help solve environmental issues on a global scale.