Ocean Youth Sydney participants recently enjoyed a hands on workshop with Defy Design, an innovative new start up that takes plastic waste and turn it into well-designed, functional products, defying the one way path into landfill.
We set up our ‘lab’, consisting of a shredder and an oven, with a range of moulds for the final products, on the deck of SEA LIFE Sydney’s administration building. OYers got to put their normal recyclables – bottles, lids, whatever plastic from the 2 category of plastic recyclables – into the shredder before placing them in a set mould ready to cook in the oven. In this case they made an all purpose bowl.
We were all astounded at how easy it actually was to transform plastic in one form into another which could then be recycled on, and on.
Defy Design’s main aim is to change the perspective of our waste and see it as the resource that it actually is. With some innovation and effort there’s no reason why we can’t turn more of our trash into new treasures. But we need to be mindful that finding uses for our waste doesn’t mean that we don’t need to reduce it all together. We do. Dealing with our plastic waste tsunami means turning off the tap as well as cleaning up what already exists.
Thanks Defy Design for an inspirational and educational workshop!
