Page 26 - Plastics News May 2019

FEATURES

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Gomi Designs a start up based in Brighton, England that Gomi are one of many studios looking at alternative ways
works as sustainable design studio has created a portable to use plastic waste. In Thessaloniki, The New Raw design
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not recyclable by local councils in the UK. The project is that residents can use to turn any plastic waste they
driven by the pressing issue of plastic trash as it currently collect into 3D-printed street furniture.
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the world, and every year the UK alone throws away 300
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the work of Tom Meades, a recent grad from the University New Raw's plastic recycling initiative, Print Your City,
of Brighton. Alongside colleagues Pawan Saunya (Richmond established in collaboration with drinks brand Coca Cola.
Upon Thames College) and Rishi Gupta (Imperial Business It offers local residents a recycling facility for their plastic
School), Tom is hoping to crowdfund £45,000 over the next waste as well as the ability to choose what the waste
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the cradle-to-cradle transform the sorted plastic into street furniture. The
design process, furniture is made primarily from PP and PE plastics.
thinking about The waste is sorted, washed and shredded before being
our products full- melted and combined with pigments to create a printable
lifecycle right from material. The furniture can also be made from PET and PS
the beginning of our plastics. Options for each object include a planter, a bike
design process,” said rack, a feeding bowl for dogs and a bookcase, among other
*RPL FR IRXQGHU 7RP *RPL WDNHV ÁH[LEOH SODVWLF /'3( functions. Users can customise the furniture, choosing
such as bubble wrap, plastic bags and pallet wrapping, between different colours and functionalities and also
then melts and compresses it to create a sturdy eco- selecting which public space in the city they would like
friendly material. The studio’s aim is to introduce to see it in. Once the design is chosen, the user is told
consumer electronic products made from waste materials how much recycled plastic would be needed to make the
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plastic. the design is made up of three modular marbled- of recycled plastic to build.
plastic components and is made using a combination of Hanth Park in central Thessaloniki , Greece became the
traditional craft techniques and digital fabrication. ÀUVW SXEOLF VSDFH WR EH UHGHVLJQHG ZLWK 3ULQW <RXU &LW\

The speakers are hand-marbled, which means that every furniture this year. More than 2,900 citizens of Thessaloniki
product has its own individual aesthetic. Gomi aims to voted where and how they wanted to see the new furniture
have free repairs and a free returning for recycling. of the city For the production of the furniture, they ahve
The speakers are designed to be modular, so they can recycled more than 800 kilos of plastic waste.
be separated easily, and the plastic components can be
melted and used for future products – without losing
any material value. They have also paired up with major
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plastic waste. we are also accepting plastic waste from
households, and local stores, which is where we can have
an interesting mix of colours between the waste streams.’
Gomi will be going on the crowdfunding platform they
will also be releasing a portable power bank and wireless
charger for smartphones made out of the same waste
material very soon.

Plastics News May 2019 26