One thing that we can all do to improve the environment is stop throwing away plastic. Recycling is one option, we do a lot of that at here at Coda. Another option is to repurpose your used plastic items.
Here are five fun ideas that you can try at home.
- Crochet with used shopping bags: Old plastic shopping bags (the ones that used to be free and now cost 5p) can be cut into one long thin strip and then used instead of wool for crochet and knitting projects. One popular project is to crochet a new heavy-duty shopping bag.
- Take up spaceship modelling: Before CGI, all the spaceships that you saw on film and TV were modelled out of waste plastic, painted and then filmed against a starry background. George Lucas used model spacecraft in the early Star Wars films. His main innovation was to keep the models still and move the camera past them to get the illusion of motion.
- Create lampshades out of buckets: Big (five gallon) plastic tubs and buckets can be turned into lampshades. High wattage bulbs will shine through thinner coloured plastics giving your room a pleasant illumination.
- Bottle cap mosaic: Plastic bottle tops come in all the colours of the rainbow (and also black and white) Press them into wet mortar to make beautiful coloured mosaics.
- Design a prototype: We’ve had some wonderful ideas brought to us that have been cobbled together out of bits of old plastic. The initial prototype for the Flower Tower that we went on to produce for Unique and Practical Ideas Ltd was a piece of drainpipe glued to a plastic plate. That was enough to give us the idea and we were able to produce a professional prototype that they could show to potential buyers.
At Coda Plastics Ltd, we’d much rather see waste plastic used creatively or recycled then dumped in a landfill site. We recycle over 90% of our own waste plastic and we also take in waste plastic from other companies and use that in the manufacture of new plastic products.
If you have a plastic product or packaging idea, please get in contact. You can call us on +44 1692 501020 or email any preliminary questions you may have to sales@coda-plastics.co.uk.
How have you repurposed plastic items? Share your pictures with us on Facebook and Twitter.