Tag Archives: marine plastic waste

Adidas and Parley build a recycled plastic tennis court to float over the Great Barrier Reef

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Parley for the Oceans, an environmental nonprofit, teamed up with Adidas to design and construct a tennis court made from recycled materials to float above the Great Barrier Reef in an effort to raise awareness about plastic waste in our oceans.

Founded in 2012 by Cyrill Gutsch, Parley for the Oceans is a nonprofit environmental organization that collaborates with a network of global creators, thinkers, and leaders in a united effort to protect our planet’s oceans. Joining forces with Adidas, the massive clothing brand with headquarters in Germany, Parley designed and built a full-size, sustainable tennis court in the middle of the great barrier reef. Entirely built using recycled materials, Parley for the Oceans is particularly focused on raising awareness about plastic entering our oceans.

Designers: Parley x Adidas

Considering its iconography in regard to climate change, it seems fitting that Parley and Adidas chose the Great Barrier Reef as the location for their recycled tennis court to float above. Stationed atop a barge that makes routine trips across the reef for environmental marine construction projects, the recycled tennis court hosted a few matches between some of Australia’s biggest tennis stars. Following the matches, Parley and Adidas donated the tennis court to a local Townsville school.

Upon collaborating with one of the biggest clothing brands in the world, Parley announced the launch of a new high-performance apparel line designed in part with Parley’s recycled ocean plastic. Inspired by the colors found on the Great Barrier Reef, the 2022 tennis apparel line from Adidas marks a step towards the company’s goal in helping end plastic waste and eliminating the use of virgin polyester from their products by 2025.

Describing the company’s use of recycled plastic, ​​Shannon Morgan, senior director of Adidas’ Pacific branch, says, “We collect plastic from coastal communities before it ends up in the oceans and [we] turn it into yarn. You will see our athletes on the field at the Australian Open from Monday with these garments made with that yarn. We are using a sporting event, the largest on our continent, to truly show the beauty of the coral reef.”

The post Adidas and Parley build a recycled plastic tennis court to float over the Great Barrier Reef first appeared on Yanko Design.

This donut-shaped EDC is designed to cut through plastics to help streamline the recycling process!

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The Donut Cutter is an EDC water bottle slicing tool designed to cut through hard plastics and streamline the recycling process.

PET is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin in production today. Used in fibers for clothing, thermoforming for manufacturing, and most often in containers for foods and liquids like water bottles, PET is used to produce most of the plastic-based products in circulation today. Since PET plastics aren’t biodegradable, they end up in landfills following their use where they’ll remain for 500 to 1,000 years until they fully degrade.

With plastic water bottles being some of the biggest contributors to PET plastic waste in landfills, industrial design studio BKID Co. constructed an EDC Donut Cutter that carves right through the bottle cap, neck ring, and plastic label to streamline the recycling process and prevent hard plastics from harming wild and aquatic life.

We’ve all seen the tragic photographs of turtles stuck in plastic yokes and birds choking on bottle caps. While PET plastics are certainly the most common form of thermoplastic polymer resin today, they’re also the most damaging to the planet.

BKID’s Donut Cutter slices right through every and any plastic water bottle partly in response to the life-threatening effects that in-tact plastic waste has on wildlife. Made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), bottle caps and neck rings have a tougher, more durable feel compared to the actual water bottle, but the Donut Cuter carves right through those as well.

Compact enough to fit inside your pants pocket, the Donut Cutter is similar in size to other EDC items like pocket knives and multipurpose tools. Designed with a circular shape, the Donut Cutter is named after its main finger loop that makes handling the EDC plastic cutter intuitive and safe.

Designer: BKID Co.

This donut-shaped EDC is designed to cut through plastics to help streamline the recycling process!

Posted on by

The Donut Cutter is an EDC water bottle slicing tool designed to cut through hard plastics and streamline the recycling process.

PET is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin in production today. Used in fibers for clothing, thermoforming for manufacturing, and most often in containers for foods and liquids like water bottles, PET is used to produce most of the plastic-based products in circulation today. Since PET plastics aren’t biodegradable, they end up in landfills following their use where they’ll remain for 500 to 1,000 years until they fully degrade.

With plastic water bottles being some of the biggest contributors to PET plastic waste in landfills, industrial design studio BKID Co. constructed an EDC Donut Cutter that carves right through the bottle cap, neck ring, and plastic label to streamline the recycling process and prevent hard plastics from harming wild and aquatic life.

We’ve all seen the tragic photographs of turtles stuck in plastic yokes and birds choking on bottle caps. While PET plastics are certainly the most common form of thermoplastic polymer resin today, they’re also the most damaging to the planet.

BKID’s Donut Cutter slices right through every and any plastic water bottle partly in response to the life-threatening effects that in-tact plastic waste has on wildlife. Made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), bottle caps and neck rings have a tougher, more durable feel compared to the actual water bottle, but the Donut Cuter carves right through those as well.

Compact enough to fit inside your pants pocket, the Donut Cutter is similar in size to other EDC items like pocket knives and multipurpose tools. Designed with a circular shape, the Donut Cutter is named after its main finger loop that makes handling the EDC plastic cutter intuitive and safe.

Designer: BKID Co.

Bubble tea lovers finally get a reusable straw that opens up for easy cleaning!

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If you are someone using plastic straws in 2020, you need to look up photos of baby turtles and imagine how they feel with plastic in their stomach. Scientists estimate 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the coastlines around the world. So our plastic pollution problem is pretty huge and to be specific how huge, the Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean is twice the size of Texas. Let’s start making a difference by decreasing single-use plastic usage – one of them being straws!

One bubble straw is designed using 100% recyclable material and is specially created for being bubble-tea friendly. I haven’t seen a paper or metal straw that is wide enough for bubble tea which makes it harder for that demographic to make the switch but not anymore. This straw by Green One has 1.3 cm diameter and measures 21 cm length. What makes it stand apart is that you can actually open it up to clean it and you don’t require any brushes! The design team wanted to create an alternative to the existing eco-friendly straws which was easier to use not only in terms of cleaning but also in piercing the drink – paper straws are too soft and metal straws are too hard. The straw is also super lightweight and wide enough to slurp up the bubble tea pearls which most existing reusable straws don’t accommodate for.

If you don’t want to rinse it by hand, you can simply put it in the dishwasher for cleaning. One bubble straw is made from 100% recyclable food-safe TPE which can be further recycled whenever you are done with it. This is the first step to decrease your single-use plastic consumption tremendously. It is eco-friendly, non-toxic, anti-dust, tasteless, and safe for use in hot and cold drinks. Green One is an HK based company dedicated to developing sustainable products and it shows in the straws packaging as well – it is made from eco-friendly paper with soy ink! Apart from creating alternatives, the brand is also organizing a ‘One Straws’ recycling program where the public can bring their used reusable straws to be cleaned before they are sent to recycling factories in order to educate people and help them reduce waste.

Designer: Green One HK

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Coca-Cola using recycled marine plastic waste in it’s latest bottle is an inspiration for FMCGs!

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In 2019, the need for sustainability, recycling, and eco-friendly products has reached an all-time high. With the advanced technology that is available nowadays, letting your carbon print run amok is simply not an option anymore. And it seems like Coca-Cola has decided to hop onto the wagon as well! In 2018, a Greenpeace report showed that Coca-Cola was found to be the world’s largest corporate plastic polluter. The report consisted of a survey of 239 cleanups in 42 countries, across six continents. The clean-up lead to more than 180,000 pieces of plastic being collected. Coca-Cola along with Nestle and PepsiCo were the perpetrators that accounted for 14% of the (branded) waste items.

Thankfully, it seems like such a revelation was a wakeup call for Coca-Cola! Coca-Cola has unveiled its first-ever prototype bottle made from previously unusable and low-quality marine waste plastic, which was recovered and recycled. Coca-Cola has deemed this technology “breakthrough”. The company in collaboration with Ioniqa Technologies, Indorama Ventures, and Mares Circulares has created a batch of 300 sample bottles, consisting of 25% recycled ocean plastic. This plastic waste was collected by volunteers from 84 beaches in Spain and Portugal, and by trawlers in the Mediterranean, through the Mares Circulares initiative. Coca-Cola claims “[It] is the first successful attempt to incorporate ocean plastics in food and drink packaging.” This impressive process is called ‘depolymerization’. Before depolymerization, colored and low quality plastic could not be recycled. But this process of ‘enhanced recycling’ “breaks down the components of plastic and strip out impurities in lower-grade recyclables so they can be rebuilt as good as new”. Coca-Cola explains, “This means that lower-grade plastics that were often destined for incineration or landfill can now be given a new life. It also means more materials are available to make recycled content, reducing the amount of virgin PET needed from fossil fuels, and resulting in a lower carbon footprint.”

“Enhanced recycling technologies are enormously exciting, not just for us but for industry and society at large,” said Bruno van Gompel, technical and supply chain director of Coca-Cola’s Western Europe division. “They accelerate the prospect of a closed-loop economy for plastic, which is why we are investing behind them. As these begin to scale, we will see all kinds of used plastics returned, as good as new, not just once but again and again, diverting waste streams from incineration and landfill. “Coca-Cola has big huge plans for their latest breakthrough. From 2020, the company plans to introduce this enhanced recycled material in some of its bottles. Across Western Europe, Coca Cola plans to integrate 100% recycled marine plastic in all it’s bottles, whereas in Great Britain they are aiming to reach 50% by next year.

Taking heed from their previous careless behavior when it comes to the environment, Coca-Cola seems adamant to leave their mark in the field of sustainability and recycling, and we cannot help but commend their efforts!

Designer: Coca-Cola in collaboration with Ioniqa Technologies, Indorama Ventures and Mares Circulares.