Precious Plastic
Matt from One Blue Eye has used information and resources from Precious Plastic to establish his business. To gain a better understanding of One Blue Eye and the plastic recycling process, I have decided to use the same resources and learn more about Precious Plastic. I aim to understand the materials and processes involved, enabling me to create how-to guides that are both simple and safe, and ensuring that the advice and information I provide are consistent with One Blue Eye's ethos.
Precious Plastic is an organisation dedicated to offering accessible and cost-effective solutions for recycling plastic and reducing the environmental impact of plastic pollution. Rather than pursuing profit, their mission is to empower as many people as possible to contribute to environmental preservation (Precious Plastic, 2021).
Precious Plastic experiments with and designs efficient recycling machines that are relatively inexpensive and easy to build. To enable people worldwide to participate in plastic recycling, they share their knowledge freely with the global community and provide guides and blueprints for building these machines. On their website, Precious Plastic states, "This inclusive approach increases accessibility and adoption worldwide" and that the basic technologies and materials used to develop the machines ensure that can be "easily understood, reproduced and repaired by people from all over the world with basic metal and building skills." (Precious Plastic Community, 2024a). Their designs are intended to be user-friendly, replicable, and open to improvement. While the small shredder and extruder are ideal for small businesses, the majority of their machines operate at a mid-industrial level, making them suitable for large-scale operations (Precious Plastic Community, 2024a).
Similarly to One Blue Eye, Precious Plastic creates small household items but would like to explore methods for recycling plastic on a larger scale, such as making large sheets and beams for furniture and construction (One Army, 2020b). One project they have recently worked on involves combining plastic with other materials, such as using plastic to hold together wooden beams in a geodesic dome. They have also designed a variety of moulds for the injection press, some of which One Blue Eye has adopted for use in their workshops (Nott, 2020). The carabiner mould is particularly useful in demonstrations as it showcases the injection press process in an accessible way and quickly gives a finished product for participants to take home (One Army, 2020b).
Beyond the recycling process, Precious Plastic assists individuals in establishing recycling businesses through three key tools: an action plan, a workspace calculator, and a business plan template (One Army, 2020b). These tools help businesses prepare for funding applications, determine material costs, and set pricing for profitability. One of the key resources businesses can use to expand their practice is the Bazar - an online marketplace where people can sell machines, raw materials, and products, with a focus on machines and parts. This community-driven platform encourages people around the world to share their ideas and processes. The online Bazar and Academy serve as hubs for sharing information, including how-to guides, maps to connect people and projects, in-depth specialist knowledge, events, presentations, meetups, beach cleanups, and global initiatives (Precious Plastic Bazar, 2024).
To simplify the process of starting a plastic recycling business, Precious Plastic has created a range of starter kits that explain the processes of collecting plastic, building machines, shredding, and creating new products (One Army, 2020b). These kits include blueprints, floorplans, videos, business plans, logos, and more. They support the establishment of collection points, shredder workspaces, sheet press workspaces, workshops, and community spaces, fostering a collaborative Precious Plastic universe. These starter kits contain the resources that the client would like to incorporate into the zine.
More recently, Precious Plastic has been researching advanced sorting techniques, such as using robots to scan and sort different types of plastic. They are also exploring alternatives to plastic, using materials like orange peels, coffee grounds, and wheat bran to develop compostable products and the necessary machinery and moulds for these innovations (One Army, 2020b).
Recycling Plastic
Statistics
Each year, 300 million tonnes of new plastic are produced, with half of it being made into single-use items (Precious Plastic Community, 2024c).
Thermoplastics, which can typically be recycled, make up approximately 80% of all plastics (Precious Plastic Community, 2024c).
Despite about 80% of plastic being recyclable, less than 10% is actually recycled (Precious Plastic Community, 2024c).
Plastic bottles, used within minutes, take hundreds of years to decompose (Surfers Against Sewage, 2024).
Annually, 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the sea (Parker, 2024).
1 million birds and over 100,000 sea mammals and turtles die yearly from ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic waste (Prime Minister's Office, 2018).
One in three fish caught for human consumption now contains plastic (Surfers Against Sewage, 2024).
Plastic Types
Plastic is a broad term that includes various synthetic polymer-based materials. These materials can be classified as either thermoplastic, which can be melted and remoulded multiple times, or thermoset, which cannot (Precious Plastic Community, 2024c). Plastics are divided into seven groups as outlined in the Resin Identification Code (RIC 1-7). RIC 1-6 plastics are all thermoplastic and can be recycled by melting, whereas RIC 7 includes both thermoplastic and thermoset materials (2EA, 2018).
1 - PET (polyethylene terephthalate)
2 - HDPE (high-density polyethylene)
3 - PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
4 - LDPE (low-density polyethylene)
5 - PP (polypropylene)
6 - PS (polystyrene)
7 - Other (mixed plastics, bioplastic, acrylic, melamine resin, ABS)
Each type of plastic has unique properties and uses. For example, PET is used for water bottles and food packaging due to its antimicrobial properties (The Plastic Bottles Company, 2021). In contrast, LDPE is ideal for plastic carrier bags because it is lightweight and flexible (Precious Plastic Community, 2024c). Melamine resin, a non-recyclable thermoset plastic in group 7, is commonly used in kitchenware due to its heat and flame resistance (Capital Resin, 2020). Only some types of plastic are food-safe, and if recycling HDPE at home for use with food, the plastic must be cleaned thoroughly before processing as the food-safety rating of the new product cannot be confirmed (Acme Plastics, 2022).
Common plastics under the RIC 7 classification are PC (polycarbonate), PLA (polylactic acid), ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), acrylic, fibreglass, nylon, bioplastics, and mixed plastics. Only some of these are recyclable, and not all household waste recycling centres accept code 7 plastic waste (Business Waste, 2023). Products made from these plastics include parts for the automotive and electronics industries, packaging, baby bottles, glasses, CDs, light switches and plugs.
Recycling
There are limitations to our existing recycling infrastructure. There are currently insufficient recycling facilities to handle the volume of plastic waste we generate in the UK, which results in a significant portion of our plastic waste being exported to other countries for recycling (British Plastics Federation, 2024). The composition of plastic packaging is not consistent across the industry, which results in plastic that is more difficult to sort and recycle. In her article for the University of Manchester, Dr Helen Holmes states, "The current plastic packaging supply chain needs urgent national reform to create standardisation and consistency" (Holmes, 2023). Until plastic production becomes consistent, the efficacy of recycling efforts will remain inconsistent.
Black plastic, often used for food packaging, is rarely recycled. Greenpeace says, "The method used to colour the plastic means it can't be recognised by the sorting systems used in most recycling plants" (Hunter, 2018). These optical sorting systems use near-infrared radiation to determine the type of plastic present, as different plastics absorb and reflect different portions of the infrared spectrum (Envirotech Online, 2024). This technology relies on how much overall light the plastic reflects, with white reflecting the most light and black reflecting the least. Items with a low light reflectance value do not always reflect enough near-infrared radiation for the sensors to detect, so black plastic is often discarded and sent to landfill (Envirotech Online, 2024). Conversely, smaller companies like One Blue Eye tend to sort plastic visually using the Resin Identification Code, allowing black plastic to be correctly sorted and recycled.
One Blue Eye is a small company that recycles plastic locally. While they may not have the extensive facilities of a large household waste and recycling company, their work makes a noticeable difference in their community (Nott, 2020). Independent recycling businesses may not feasibly have the equipment for chemical recycling methods such as pyrolysis or depolymerisation (Plastics Europe, 2024), but they can typically process most plastics within the RIC 1-6 range using mechanical recycling techniques like grinding and melting. By utilising the machines developed by Precious Plastic, One Blue Eye can handle types of plastic that are more difficult for the public to repurpose at home. PP, for example, is one of the safer plastics regarding fumes, but it has a high melting point, which could make it hazardous to handle without the proper equipment.
Safety
There are safety concerns when melting plastic, mainly regarding the fumes emitted during the process (Precious Plastic Community, 2024b). Large recycling companies and smaller specialised businesses like One Blue Eye have appropriate safety measures in place. Ventilation systems and activated carbon gas masks are standard, and there are recommended limits on the hours per week spent recycling certain plastics that emit more harmful fumes, such as polystyrene (One Army, 2020a). The public typically does not have access to these facilities and safety measures, so it is important to specify which types of plastic are safe to melt and reuse at home.
Melting HDPE, LDPE, and PP can release some fumes, but these are generally not harmful in small quantities. Working in a well-ventilated area and avoiding inhaling the fumes can mitigate risks (One Army, 2020a). PET releases dangerous fumes when melted, most notably acetaldehyde, a volatile organic compound that can cause short-term irritation to the eyes, skin, and respiratory system, and long-term health issues. PS releases styrene and other harmful chemicals, so it should be avoided unless proper safety measures are in place (Precious Plastic Community, 2024b). Precious Plastic recommends not working with PVC at all as it releases hydrogen chloride, dioxins, and other toxic fumes (Precious Plastic Community, 2024b). Due to the unknown combination of plastics found in group 7, it is best to treat these plastics as unsafe.
Deemed the safest:
2 - HDPE (high-density polyethylene)
4 - LDPE (low-density polyethylene)
More hazardous:
1 - PET (polyethylene terephthalate)
5 - PP (polypropylene)
6 - PS (polystyrene)
Precious Plastic recommends not working with:
3 - PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
7 - Other (mixed plastics, bioplastic, acrylic, melamine resin, ABS)
Zine Planning
Precious Plastic Resources
The client has asked to incorporate some resources from Precious Plastic into the zine. I went through every starter kit that they provide and pulled out the documents most relevant to the target audience of people in the community who want to get involved in plastic recycling. Resources like business plans and machine blueprints are not needed for this project. The documents I found most suited to the zine were the Visual Properties sheet, How to Clean Your Plastic, Melting Temperatures, and Safety (Precious Plastic, 2020).
As we are only encouraging the use of HDPE and LDPE at home, there is no need to illustrate the melting temperatures of all plastics or provide information about building machines. The main aim of this zine is to encourage people to get involved in plastic recycling, whether that be by making it into something new at home, purchasing recycled products from One Blue Eye, or simply correctly recycling their household waste. With this in mind, the most useful resource from Precious Plastic for this project is the Visual Properties sheet. This document outlines the different types of plastic alongside their properties and uses. The audience may not need to know all of the details regarding burning plastic, so it would be useful to create a simplified version of the Visual Properties document that is specifically tailored to the audience's needs. As Precious Plastic is an open-source project, we are allowed to share and adapt the content for any purpose, provided the content is credited and changes are indicated (Creative Commons, 2024).
RIC and Plastic Type | Properties | Uses | Recommendation |
1. PET - Polyethene Terephthalate | Strong, transparent, antimicrobial, barrier to gas and moisture. Softens at 80°c. | Water bottles, wrapping, food containers. | Harmful fumes. Food-safe when new, not when recycled. Best left to the professionals. Avoid |
2. HDPE - High-Density Polyethylene | Hard but slightly flexible, resistant to chemicals and moisture, can be sterilised, and food-safe. Feels waxy. Softens at 75°c. | Food and drink containers, chopping boards, milk bottles, bottle lids, shampoo bottles. | Hard to ignite so less likely to burn. Easy to mould. Safe |
3. PVC - Polyvinyl Chloride | Strong and tough, can be clear. Softens at 60°c. | Fake leather, seals, pipes, vinyl flooring, cable insulation, garden hoses. | Dioxins released when burning increase risks of cancer, respiratory illnesses, birth defects. Do not use. Dangerous |
4. LDPE - Low-Density Polyethylene | Soft and flexible, can be stretched and scratched easily. Feels waxy. Softens at 70°c. | Plastic wrap, sandwich bags, grocery bags, bin bags. | Hard to ignite so less likely to burn. Flimsy but can be ironed. Safe |
5. PP - Polypropylene | Hard but flexible, strong, solvent resistant. Food-safe and can withstand higher temperatures, e.g. in a dishwasher. Feels waxy. Softens at 140°c. | DVD cases, bottles, ice cream tubs, straws, packaging. | Less likely to burn as it is harder to reach high enough temperatures. Harder to mould due to its high melting point. Best left to the professionals. Avoid |
6. PS - Polystyrene | Clear and glossy, quite tough. Softens at 95°c. | CD cases, plastic cutlery, packing foam, imitation glass. | Harmful fumes and dense smoke, releases cyclic compounds which may cause cancer. Can be filtered with activated carbon, but best left to the professionals. Avoid |
7. Other Includes PC, PLA, ABS, acrylic, fibreglass, nylon, bioplastics, and mixed plastics. Only some are recyclable. | Variable - mixed plastic types, hard to know what is in it so it is assumed unsafe. | Automotive, electronics, packaging, baby bottles, glasses, CDs, light switches and plugs. | Unknown mix of plastics, do not use. Dangerous |
To create a simpler version of the Visual Properties sheet and combine it with the knowledge gained through my research, I made the table shown above. This details the types of plastics, their properties, their uses, and their safety information, culminating in one of three recommendations: Safe, Avoid, and Dangerous. Where companies like One Blue Eye may have the facilities to safely work with PET, PP, and PS, the general public does not. When I create the How-To guides in the zine, I will suggest the audience only work with HDPE and LDPE to reduce the risk of any safety concerns.
I further refined this information to create this spread about Plastic Basics and Plastic Safety, as shown below. I used the symbols from Precious Plastic and a QR code that links to their video about fumes and safety (One Army, 2020a). As there is a lot of information in a small space, I used basic symbols and bold print to emphasise important areas, and used the gold from the colour scheme for the literal "Golden Rule" of "DO NOT BURN PLASTIC!"
How-To Guides
The client requested some basic guides to show people how to melt and recycle plastic at home and suggested one using a panini press and another using an iron. While I wanted to avoid copying existing guides for these processes, I looked at a few to ensure I understood the steps correctly and could show One Blue Eye's audience how to remain safe.
On the Instructables website, the user 1up Living documented their process of making a lampshade (1up Living, 2022). They used a sandwich toaster to melt plastic, creating small squares of different colours using square cookie cutters as moulds. Once the plastic had cooled, they drilled small holes into the corners of each piece and linked them together, resulting in a unique lampshade. This is a great idea for recycling larger amounts of plastic from home - while it may be too big a project for the first zine, larger products like lampshades may be something the client can explore in further editions.
Another creator who used cookie cutters was the user IN MOCEAN on the Precious Plastic Community web pages. Much like Matt from One Blue Eye, this user created recycled plastic Christmas decorations (IN MOCEAN, 2023). Instead of using the cookie cutters as a mould like 1up Living did, they used them as a stencil to outline the shapes before cutting them out with a saw. I felt it may be a stretch for members of the public to have easy access to a saw, so I determined that the most accessible way to use cookie cutters would be to push them into the plastic while it was still warm, and then to pop them out once the plastic had cooled.
The Plastic People focused on the process of melting bottle tops and lids rather than forming it into a specific product, and their photos reassured me that I understood the safety measures that needed to be in place (The Plastic People, 2022). I will take a similar approach with my guides, suggesting potential items to make but primarily addressing how to melt plastic safely. I feel that people often have the creativity but lack the knowledge of how to do it safely, so this should be the priority. The client can then expand on this in further editions of the zine if he wishes to, showing how to make specific items once the foundations have already been established.
The first three guides all used a panini press or sandwich toaster to melt plastic, but as the client also asked for a guide to using irons, I looked into the guide for making a wallet by Plastic Shed. In this video, they demonstrate how to build up layers of plastic bags and fuse the layers with an iron (Plastic Shed, 2020). They created a thicker plastic sheet that was stronger but still flexible, then used a template to cut it out into the shape of a wallet. This highlighted the importance of gradually building up the plastic layers to ensure they were consistent in thickness.
I had initially included PP as a potential plastic to use with the panini press, but I removed this following feedback from the client. While PP is theoretically safe to use at home as it emits minimal fumes, its high melting point means it is impractical and potentially hazardous. HDPE and LDPE have much lower melting points, so there is a much lower risk of people burning themselves when using these plastics.
Through my research, I feel I have gained a more secure understanding of the mechanical process of plastic recycling, the different types of plastic, and the safety precautions needed when melting it. This has provided a solid foundation to create how-to guides that are both simple and safe.
References
1up Living (2022) Sandwich Toaster Plastic Recycling, Instructables. Available at: https://www.instructables.com/Sandwich-Toaster-Plastic-Recycling/ (Accessed: 21 June 2024).
2EA (2018) Plastics – Resin Codes. What do They Mean?, 2EA. Available at: https://2ea.co.uk/plastics-resin-codes-what-do-they-mean/ (Accessed: 20 July 2024).
Acme Plastics (2022) The Ultimate Guide to Food-Grade and Food-Safe Plastics, Acme Plastics. Available at: https://www.acmeplastics.com/content/the-ultimate-guide-to-food-grade-and-food-safe-plastics/ (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
British Plastics Federation (2024) Plastic Recycling, British Plastics Federation. Available at: https://www.bpf.co.uk/Sustainability/Plastics_Recycling (Accessed: 21 July 2024).
Business Waste (2023) Recycling Code 7 Plastic, Business Waste. Available at: https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/your-waste/plastic-recycling/recycling-code-7/ (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
Capital Resin (2020) What Melamine Resin is Used For, Capital Resin. Available at: https://capitalresin.com/what-melamine-resin-is-used-for/ (Accessed: 15 July 2024).
Creative Commons (2024) Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons, Creative Commons. Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ (Accessed: 22 June 2024).
Envirotech Online (2024) How Does NIR Spectrometry Aid Plastic Recycling?, Envirotech Online. Available at: https://www.envirotech-online.com/news/environmental-laboratory/7/international-environmental-technology/nir-spectrometry-plastic-recycling/62754 (Accessed: 21 July 2024).
Holmes, H. (2023) Trashing the Future: Failures of UK Plastic Recycling Policies and Next Steps, Policy@Manchester Articles. Available at: https://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/posts/2023/03/trashing-the-future-failures-of-uk-plastic-recycling-policies-and-next-steps (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
Hunter, A. (2018) Black Plastic: What’s the Problem?, Greenpeace UK. Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/blackplastic/ (Accessed: 20 July 2024).
IN MOCEAN (2023) Make Christmas Ornaments from Upcycled Bottle Caps, How-To - Precious Plastic Community. Available at: https://community.preciousplastic.com/how-to/make-christmas-ornaments-from-upcycled-bottle-caps (Accessed: 05 July 2024).
Nott, M. (2020) Matt Nott @OneBlueEyeCornwall, Instagram. Available at: http://www.instagram.com/oneblueeyecornwall/ (Accessed: 16 June 2024).
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One Army (2020a) Precious Plastic - Safety and Plastic Fumes (Part 2.2), YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsj6qHHLynk (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
One Army (2020b) Precious Plastic 4 - Fully Explained, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thhHoPJ6Y14 (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
Parker, L. (2024) Plastic Pollution Facts and Information, National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution (Accessed: 24 June 2024).
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The Plastic People (2022) How to Melt & Recycle Plastic Bottle Tops & Lids, The Plastic People. Available at: https://www.theplasticpeople.co.uk/blog/how-to-melt-plastic-bottle-tops-lids/ (Accessed: 17 June 2024).
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Precious Plastic Bazar (2024) Precious Plastic Bazar. Available at: https://bazar.preciousplastic.com/ (Accessed: 21 July 2024).
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Precious Plastic Community (2024c) The Basics of Plastic, Academy - Precious Plastic Community. Available at: https://community.preciousplastic.com/academy/plastic/basics (Accessed: 16 July 2024).
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