5 peer comments

Alissa Sanders
Sam Whipp
Kate Barclay
Brett Rushbrook
Jonathon Biet

Upcycling Unwanteds

This is my apron made from old plastic bags.

Every year Australian's use 6.9 BILLION plastic bags with most ended up in landfill or our waterways. It is said that plastic bags take over 400yrs to biodegrade and kill approximately 100 000 marine animals each year. So it is time to UPCYCLE!

After a bit of testing and experimenting, i was able to conclude that plastic bags are relatively easy to melt using an iron. However this changed the form of the plastic bag adding new qualities and characteristics. For example, i discovered that once ironed, plastic bags become very strong and when melted together also form a strong bond. This lead me to realise that I now had basically a plastic fabric which also meant i had semi waterproof fabric. I also tested what type of plastic bags are best suited, i found that normal shopping bags (from Woolies etc.) don't melt to well because they are so thin, they tend to melt too quickly and shrivel not leaving the best finish. I then went on to clothes shop plastic bags which come in a variety of colours and tend to be a thicker plastic leaving a much better and more colourful finish. The next issue i had was how to maximise the use of the original plastic bag, that being working around the shops logo. So i created a pattern using stripes! Which meant i could cut out the logo very easily and use as much of the bag as possible. The other issue was creating a pattern that you could use with any plastic bags and not necessarily have to use to much of the one type of bag, because as you know, thats not necessarily how "rubbish" works!

So my final product, is a strippy plastic apron! Which is "lined" or reinforced on the back with white shopping bags. It has pink satin ribbon (which could easily also be made from the plastic bags) stitched on for a tie and neck strap. I have used 2 large Glassons bags, 2 large Equip bags, 3 small bra shop bags, 7 white "woolies" shopping bags and part of a large Just Jeans bag. Although my apron is a little crunchy, the best thing about it, its that you can so easily just wipe it down when you spill something on it, less washing!

Task Five

The Story of Stuff

This is a very interesting clip that talks about the real life cycle of the product and expands on its basic 5 stages:
1. extraction
2. Production
3. Distribution
4. Consumption
5. Disposal

It discusses the impact the governments and corporations have over us and our environment. The film reminds us of how we are a consumerist society and how easily we have been molded into becoming this. It encourages us to think more about why we are buying "stuff" and to think about we're it came from and its "externalized costs"

This clip is so important to the industrial designer, as it is us that can help make a huge change in the amount of consumption and waste of society. As we can design newer models that can be re-used from old ones, and we can design more recyclable objects that produce less toxins. The most important thing a young industrial designer can take form this is to think about not just the design and marketing of the product, but the impacts on society and the environment of the manufacturing process.

5 comments

Jennifer Widjaja
Alissa Sanders
Crhistopher Hui
Wawen Chen
Stanley Wong