Plastic Projects

[Tengu]

I am at an impasse with my education, but still have my fingers in many Heritage pies.

I am started as a guest blogger for the Museum of Design in Plastic. This will be mostly about Horn, but I thought of saying a little on plastics too.

Has any one any ideas for projects to reuse plastics that are practical (rather than silly arty stuff?)

 

[Toddy]

One of my friends did a whole series of basket weaving things using plastic scrap, ten years ago now.
Loads of ideas in that vein on the net. Called 'upcycled plastic bottles', for instance.

Green water bottle ones make lovely translucent leaves. If they're strung of hot-glued together they make Summer decorations for the garden, or Christmas ones with cold led lights.

Milk bottles can be shredded, heated and compressed and will make stuff like knife scales....look for 'recycle plastic HDPE' for those.

 

[Janne]

I fill large (1.5 or 2 liter) plastic bottles with sand, then saturate with water, make an eyelet on the bottle top from wire.
Weights for my crap traps.

Costs virtually nothing and should it get trapped in between rocks, will tear off and I can still retrieve the trap.

Not much else you can do with your diy plastic recycling?

Yeah, of course, we put our kitchen garbage in the few supermarket plastic bags we get.

I know Helly Hansen the Norwegian clothes manufacturer, uses PET bottles in their fluffy fabric.

 

[Bishop]

How about a brief history of the Jaipur Foot ?

If I recall correctly the original prototypes were made from scraps of old rubber gloves in a wooden mould, baked/vulcanised inside a domestic pressure cooker. Not strictly 'plastic' but chemically still part of the long chain polymer family and probably one of the best upcycling projects I have ever seen.

 

[Janne]

If polymers in general are ok here, then worn out car tyres ( made today mainly from synthetic polymers) are made into shoes.
Africa, Asia.

I thing this is one of the best up cycling ever.

 

[zornt]

Lots of tutorials on u tube and Pinterest for making corsage from plastic bottles.
It could be branded into larger strands and weaved into baskets or other containers.

 

[Woody girl]

I saw on you tube some while back how to make a sweeping broom from litre lemonade bottles and a stick.
Melting down milk bottle tops in a microwave makes a useful block of plastic. Mix the colours together and it looks amazing all marbled.
Plastic string can be made from bottles and used in many ways.
Plastic bags can be cut up and crocheted into mats and bags.
You tube is your pal here.
Glad you have some fingers in pies.
Best of luck with it all.

 

[Tengu]

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/mending-coastal-marshes/

But not quite what I was looking for

 

[TLM]

As Janne said before in some places old tyres are used to make sandal soles. I know that it is in principle possible to devulcanize the rubber in tyres and reuse it as material for something else, like shoe soles or what ever. The idea is not new in any way but not much used. At present I think most old tyres are either burned or shred to granules to be used as filler.