This is a serious attempt. I've been following these guys for years. Last year they had a full makeshift staff of volunteer designers, engineers, web devs, etc. to build out this project further. They performed a lot of materials and manufacturing research to build these simple and affordable machines. Although the machines they developed are around $10k for a full setup, compare that to the multiple millions it costs to setup a true recycling center and you'll understand how important this is.

A small community can (and are) band together to build or purchase these machines to create community recycling centers, turning their trash into art or other useful things like dishes and furniture.

I was obsessed with this project for the last few years. Happy and surprised to see them on HN.

This is a serious attempt. Dave Hakkens [1] graduated cum laude at the Design Academy Eindhoven, a highly regarded art school in the south of The Netherlands. The Wikipedia page is informative and a recommended read, though it does not include at least one grand he received after 2014 which I saw on TV (I don't remember the year or name of award, just that it was a design contest he won concerning Precious Plastic). You might've heard of Phonebloks before (a project with the same goal as Project Ara)? Same dude.

In Precious Plastic v4, many people collaborated, so it does not surprise me that the quality is high enough for someone to say "is this art?" Dave is a designer though (industrial designer); arguably not an artist. The goals of his projects have a practical use. I mean, is Jony Ive an artist, or a designer? Are his designs a work of art? Not sure it has to be one or the other.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Hakkens