Will.i.am Wants You to Buy This Eco-Friendly 3-D Printer The Ekocycle Cube, priced at $1,199 and shipping later this year, purportedly turns old plastic Coke bottles into 'beautiful objects,' the artist says.
By Geoff Weiss
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To his long hit list of chart-topping singles and entrepreneurial pursuits -- I Gotta Feeling and a founding stake in Beats Electronics, among them -- will.i.am is now adding a 3-D printer with a decidedly ecological bent.
Ekocycle Cube, a 3-D printer that exclusively prints from post-consumer waste, is slated to ship later this year.
Will.i.am already boasts a measure of experience in both 3-D printing and environmentalism. In addition to launching Ekocycle -- a brand that creates aspirational products from recycled materials -- alongside Coca-Cola in 2012, he was named chief creative officer of 3D Systems, a 3-D printing company, last January.
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An amalgamation of these two curiosities has resulted in the Ekocycle Cube, which will be priced at $1,199.
Each printing cartridge used for the device is made in part from recycled plastic coke bottles, 3D Systems said. They are available in shades of red, black, white and natural and are composed of roughly three recycled bottles each.
Additionally, the printer will ship with a collection of 25 fashion, music and tech-minded accessory designs -- including bracelets, vases and birdhouses -- all of which have been curated by will.i.am himself.
This isn't the artist's first foray into the hardware sphere. He is also the creator of the i.am+ foto.sosho -- a much-derided, $475 iPhone camera accessory that touts 14-megapixel sensors and also doubles as a phone case and necklace.
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