Michigan student inventors turn recycled plastic bottles into low-cost prosthetic limbs
Biomedical engineering undergraduates at the University of Michigan created a lightweight, durable prosthetic arm made entirely from recycled plastic bottles collected across campus. The students developed an open-source 3D-printing process that reduces the cost of a functional prosthetic arm from thousands of dollars to thirty dollars. The design requires no electricity. In October 2026, the team fitted their first five pediatric recipients at a regional children's hospital. The project co-founder said that "seeing a seven-year-old catch a baseball with an arm made from campus recycling changed how we see waste forever."
Children needing prosthetics receive affordable, lightweight replacement limbs crafted from recycled plastic at a fraction of medical device prices.
Source: U-M Student Engineers Create $30 Prosthetics from Recycled Bottles (Michigan News / Ann Arbor Press).
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