Plastic waste up cycling

Up cycling is the process of adapting used or waste material to create a new product offering with a greater value and content. It is a creative and environmentally friendly way to give new life to discarded materials. It involves transforming used or discarded plastic items into new, functional, and often aesthetically pleasing products. Here are some creative ideas for up cycling plastic waste: –

1. Plastic Bottle Planters:– Cut the tops off plastic bottles to create planters. These can be hung vertically or arranged horizontally to create a unique and modular green wall.
2. Plastic Bag Crochet:-Repurpose plastic bags into “plarn” (plastic yarn) and use it for crochet projects. Create tote bags, doormats, or even decorative items.
3. Bottle Cap Mosaic Art:- Collect and sort plastic bottle caps by colour, then use them to create mosaic art. The caps can be arranged to form pictures, patterns, or designs.
4. DIY Plastic Jeweller:-Cut and shape colourful plastic bottles into beads or intricate designs to make unique jewellery pieces like earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.
5. Plastic Lid Coasters:- Glue together plastic lids in a creative pattern to make coasters. The different colours and sizes can create interesting and functional designs.
6. Plastic Spoon Chandelier:-Attach plastic spoons to a frame to create a chandelier. Paint the spoons in different colors for an eye-catching effect.
7.  Milk Jug Watering Can: –Cut the top off a plastic milk jug and puncture holes in the lid to make a DIY watering can for your garden.
8.  Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder: –Cut windows into a plastic bottle, fill it with birdseed, and hang it in your garden to attract birds.
9.  Up cycled Plastic Bag Fabric: –Iron together layers of plastic bags to create a durable plastic fabric. This can be used to make reusable bags, rain ponchos, or even outdoor cushions.
10. Plastic Bottle Vertical Garden: –Cut plastic bottles in half and attach them to a vertical surface to create a pocket garden. This is especially effective for small spaces.

Benefits of Plastic Up cycling:-

• CO2 Reduction
• According to NASA, CO2 levels in the air are higher than at any time in the past 400,000 years. Up cycling plastics can help reduce CO2 from burning plastic trash.
• Conservation, reduction in raw materials, energy and cost of production
• Up cycling plastics reduces the amount of waste that gets to landfills. Most plastics contain dangerous chemicals that cause soil degradation and water pollution.
• Supporting local industries
• Up cycling plastics helps to support local businesses and industries and helps entrepreneurs in waste management.
• Up cycling Single-Use Polyethylene into High-Quality Liquid Products
• Catalytic processes that convert waste Polyethylene into value-added products are vital to mitigating the adverse impacts of plastic pollution and developing a circular economy.

Up cycling industries in Assam

1. Trash to Treasure: –Trash to Treasure is a start-up founded by Aditya Banger in 2021 that makes fabrics out of plastic waste. It collects plastic waste, majorly PET plastic, from municipalities, rag pickers, and big companies like Pepsico, Coca Cola and Bisleri. All this waste undergoes the process of conversion through which fibres are converted. It is then given to its parent company to convert the fibre into fabric and sell further for making clothes.

2. Alcis Sports: –Alcis Sports is a Paragon Apparels Pvt. Ltd. brand founded in 2017 by Roshan Baid. It manufactures sportswear. It is India’s largest sportswear manufacturing and exporting brand. It offers technologically advanced high-quality sportswear at affordable prices. It sticks to its key value of sustainability. Thus, it manufactures sustainable sportswear in its sustainable range by collecting plastic and then converting them into a fabric which is comfortable, lightweight and breathable.

3. Ecokaari: –EcoKaari is a social enterprise founded in 2020 by Nandan Bhat. It up cycles plastic to produce handcrafted fabrics with the help of Charkha and Handloom. They are then used to stitch eco products. Because all their work is done by hand, they also create employment opportunities for people. They have three pillars for sustainable development- Planet, People and Communities. With all three of them, they are creating safe products for the environment. Their product range includes beach bags, tote bags, moon bags, wallets, fanny bags, etc.

4. Polycycle: –Polycycle is a plastic recycling company that transforms about 5.5 million PET bottles daily to make recycled polyester staple fiber. It can produce 100 tons of fiber. They produce more than 50 dope-dyed colour fibers without using a single drop of water. Besides, all its projects used solar and wind energy thus, making it a complete environment-friendly option. Its product range includes raw white polyester staple fiber; dope dyed polyester staple fiber, polycycle antimicrobial fiber, etc.

5. RawCycle by RAW Pressery: –RawCycle is a sustainable clothing initiative by a Mumbai-based start-up- RAW Pressery. It is a health and food beverage start-up founded in 2013. After realizing the harmful effects plastics have on earth, Atiya Rakyan, the Chief Recycling Officer of RAW Pressery, came up with the idea of recycling their juice bottles to make t-shirts called RawCycle in 2019. To do this, they collect plastic from their customers and recycle them into RawCycled t-shirts. They are made of 95% recycled plastic and 5% spandex and are wrinkle-free, comfortable and reversible.