Having the ability to “play around” has been one of the most enjoyable parts of running this social enterprise. Some of our “what if” or “I think we should do this” moments have lead us to some amazing prototypes. We will bring these ideas to market in time but for now here is a rundown on what we have created;
Measuring in at 900mm by 2000mm this extra large recycled plastic sheet was designed to be a replacement for a shower splash back. Using a whopping 3,200 single use plastic lids to make, this prototype shows that there really isn’t a limit to what we can use this for. Be it a table top, bench or feature wall, this beautiful display of waste really is something we wish to create in the next 3-5 years of operating. Currently these can be custom made using 12 of our large sheets welded together, however with the right funding we will be able to make this in one press – meaning your shower splash backs wouldn’t have any grout anymore!
We all love our fur babies so when we fostered a pup named Taco the Dog, we knew he needed a feeding station, so instead of buying a new one we decided to create our own. However as any cat owner will know, the cats where not impressed that we only made one for the dog, so after creating one for each of them we now have our custom made pet food bowls. Super easy to clean and using 100-250 single use plastic milk lids to create, these beautiful pet food stands have been a hit with our animals.
We have been close to bringing these to market a few times however they are just not up to our standards yet and still require a bit more R&D.
I cannot wait to bring this to life! I have already filled my little A5 notebook with my ideas and drawings. This idea has been something I have wanted to create for some time now and its at the top of our list to create, so we are very close to adding this to our shop. Both the A4 and A5 notebooks will be available with recycled lined paper or blank paper, and they will be completely refillable and unique in how they look. Keep an eye out in our shop for these!
When our friends asked us if we could create a custom made donation box out of recycled plastic, we jumped at the idea. We made this in early 2020 when we were still learning how to make this and join the box together. We learned so much and had so much fun challenging ourselves to this product. We have only made one of these but could happily do this again if requested.
When I first started this journey I really wanted to make a bird house. However when I got to thinking I thought to myself just how ridiculous that idea is… From a birds point of view we cut THEIR HOME down to then be turned into thin boards that we use to make a tiny enclosed box. This just seems strange, so instead I decided to make a bird feeder, at this stage we didn’t know much about plastic welding so these where glued together, however we loved making them and our local friends loved it as well. We did sell these for a while however they took quite a while to make so we decided to take them off the store.
We where lucky enough to have the opportunity to create the trophies for the “Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2022” This was such a blast to create and make, seeing the faces of the winners when they received our trophies was a win for us. A massive thank you to Keep Australia beautiful: Victoria, Sustainability Victoria and Banksia Foundation for giving us this opportunity.
If you would like a trophy designed for your sporting club, school or awards ceremony we would love the chance to do this again.
When COVID hit and we where all stuck inside, we did what most people did and started going nuts on plants and veggie gardens. Using reclaimed pallet boxes and wanting them to look pretty we decided to cover them with our recycled plastic sheets. This really helped us envision what we needed to do in order to create usable plant pots; we now offer them in our shop.
Now having a birthday on Christmas day sure does make me the Grinch.. Lucky for me Ash is the definition of Christmas and loves to get into the spirit, so early on in this journey she got to designing and making our first decorations for our Christmas tree. We had a few people reach out wanting these and were able to use their Cricut machine to custom name them as a gift to their co-workers.
Don’t you hate it when you go out to the supermarket and realise the trolleys need a coin to unlock. Well this got us thinking, why not create our own and after some R&D we made a copy of the typical shape but found it easy to lose, so some further R&D got us to our turtle design, but this still needs some work. After coming second in the Alfred Rotary club Environmental Challenge we are now able to design a new shape that we bring this idea to life.
Back when Ash and I had free time we used to love a good gaming session together on the PS4 (this was before kids and a business) and one day after seeing a stand for sale at my local shopping centre I decided that instead of buying one I would make one for myself. Using one of our (old style) recycled plastic sheets I cut and glued one up together to suit our headset and controllers.
This prototype was made so I had a tub to use for markets and around the house, but when my step-mum seen this she wanted one for her bathroom to store the toilet rolls (purple mix of course), so we welded 5 clipboards together and made these study and practical tubs.