in 2018, a group called precious plastic texas was formed by students at the university of texas after learning about what was being done in thailand. in 2019 students in the environmental fellows program's gateway seminar at depauw university in indiana began work on a precious plastic project, and received funding from the joseph and carol danks centers council fund for multidisciplinary projects. the project will continue in a gateway seminar and three art classes, and they may add an off-campus trip to a precious plastic site. in australia, unsw business school students, working closely with precious plastic, won the 2019 big idea competition in the postgraduate category with their start-up idea called closed loop – a local-level plastic waste recycling business. engineering students at the monash university chapter created a precious plastic one-metre cube portable recycling machine to transport to events for display.