Recycling is more imperative today as trash also pollutes oceans. Plastic recyclers are at the forefront of the global movement to eliminate non-biodegradable waste by converting it into useful products.
A group of Dutch students collected and used plastics littering the sea, recycled plastic bottles, and household garbage to create an electric sports car, according to Reuters.
Lisa van Etten, team leader of the 22 students from Technical University of Eindhoven in The Netherlands, said they used flax and recycled PET bottles to make the car’s chassis, and unsorted household waste for its interior.
Hard plastics from televisions, toys, and kitchen appliances were used for the car’s body, while coconut and horse hair made up the seat cushions, Reuters reported.
The car they named Luca can run at a maximum speed of 90 kilometers per hour and range of 220 kilometers when fully charged, Reuters added.
At the ongoing Singapore Design Week, a variety of up-cycled products are exhibited, proving that household waste has unlimited potential as usable material.
Among the recycled products is a tube lamp made from washing machine duct. Singaporean artist and designer David Lee created the floor, table, and ceiling lamps by inserting LED strips into the flexible hoses before bending them into unique shapes, CNN reported.
The exhibition also features deck umbrellas made from palm tree bark, chairs produced from plastic trash, and rugs made from leftover dog hairs disposed by pet grooming shops.
Another exhibitor, Indonesian designer and teacher Adhi Nugraha, came up with a desk speaker through a waste reprocessing method she invented.
The speaker made from cow dung involved washing the manure with water to remove its foul smell and then mixing it with scrap plastic and wood glue, according to CNN. The mixture is then placed in a mold and dried in low heat until it hardens.
Aside from the cow dung speaker, Nugraha recycled the manure into lamps and stools.