ABOUT POLI
Polihomes is a concept-stage housing initiative created by students from Enactus UWA. We are exploring how recycled polymers and large-format 3D printing could turn plastic waste into modular homes, furniture, public infrastructure, and architectural products.
Born from social entrepreneurship, Polihomes aims to tackle two problems at once: the plastic waste crisis and the growing need for faster, more affordable housing.
Our Story
1. Polihomes
Building a future where waste becomes housing.
Polihomes began inside Enactus UWA, a student-led social entrepreneurship club focused on creating businesses that are financially sustainable and socially beneficial. We started with a simple question: what if plastic waste was not treated as the end of a product’s life, but the beginning of something bigger?
That question became Polihomes: a concept-stage housing initiative exploring how recycled polymers, large-format 3D printing, and modular design could help tackle two major challenges at once — plastic waste and housing affordability.
Add a small concept disclaimer near the top:
Polihomes is currently a concept-stage initiative. Our work is focused on design development, material testing, prototyping, cost modelling, and future compliance pathways.
2. Our origin
Born from student-led social entrepreneurship
Polihomes was created by students through Enactus UWA, where the goal is not just to create ideas, but to build ventures that can stand on their own while solving real social problems.
As students, we saw two issues that felt impossible to ignore. The first was plastic waste: a material stream with huge volume, low recovery rates, and limited high-value reuse. The second was housing: a system under pressure from rising prices, tight rentals, long waitlists, and slow construction.
Polihomes is our attempt to connect those problems into one opportunity.
3. The plastic problem
The world does not need another small recycling idea
Globally, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled, while plastic waste has more than doubled since 2000. In Australia, around 3.2 million tonnes of plastic reached end-of-life in 2023–24, yet the national plastics recovery rate was only 14%.
We did not want to design another product that reused a small handful of plastic. We wanted to ask a bigger question:
What could absorb large volumes of recycled polymer and turn it into something valuable, durable, and socially useful?
Housing became the answer.
4. The housing problem
Australia needs more housing, faster
Australia’s housing system is under intense pressure. In Perth, the average house price has moved around or above the $1 million mark, with recent annual growth figures showing Perth among the fastest-growing capital city housing markets. At the same time, WA’s social housing waitlist has been reported at nearly 20,700 applications/households, rising 38% over five years.
For us, this is not just a statistic. As university students, we know what it feels like to search for somewhere affordable to live. Many people across WA face the same pressure, but with far fewer options.
Polihomes is being developed as a possible contribution to that challenge: not as the only solution, but as one way to help rethink how housing can be produced, scaled, and delivered.
5. Why 3D printing
A new way to think about construction
The construction industry has seen major improvements, but the basic model of building homes remains slow, labour-intensive, material-heavy, and expensive.
Polihomes explores whether large-format 3D printing can change that by creating structural shells with fewer production steps, reduced material waste, repeatable designs, and greater freedom in shape and form.
The goal is to test whether recycled polymer homes can become:
faster to manufacture, easier to replicate, more material-efficient, and adaptable to different housing needs.
6. More than homes
From housing to furniture, study pods, art, and public spaces
Polihomes is not only about printing houses. The same technology could be used to create furniture, tables, chairs, planters, wall pieces, study pods, sculptures, and public art.
That matters because 3D printing breaks traditional design limits. It allows recycled material to become something beautiful, functional, and high-value.
Where many people see plastic waste, we see future homes, public spaces, furniture, and art.
7. Competition traction
Student idea, national recognition
In 2025, the Polihomes concept was pitched through Enactus and won the Enactus Australia competition, giving our student team the opportunity to represent Australia at the Enactus World Cup.
That experience helped show us that Polihomes is more than a university idea. It is a concept with the potential to become a real venture, built by students who want to create measurable social and environmental impact.
8. What we are working toward
Our next steps
Polihomes is still at the concept stage, but our direction is clear. We are working toward:
Designing modular housing concepts
Testing recycled polymer materials
Exploring large-format 3D printing pathways
Building partnerships with industry, government, and universities
Understanding compliance and approval requirements
Developing furniture, public infrastructure, and small-scale prototypes
Creating a business model that is socially useful and financially sustainable
The long-term goal is simple:
to turn waste into value, and plasti below our oceans into places we call home.
Concept status
Polihomes is currently a concept-stage initiative. No full-scale tiny homes have been printed yet. Current work is focused on design development, material testing, prototyping, cost modelling, and exploring future compliance pathways.
-
What we aim to create
-
Homes
-
Emergency housing
-
Social and affordable housing modules
-
Study pods
-
Outdoor furniture
-
Tables and chairs
-
Planters
-
Wall pieces
-
Sculptures
-
Public infrastructure
Polihomes is built on a simple belief: innovation can turn yesterday’s waste into tomorrow’s solutions.