Plastic is so underrated, isn’t it? I mean, can you think of another material that is equally versatile, durable, waterproof, and inexpensive? Unfortunately, as it's composed of natural gas and crude oil, we’ll eventually run out. We're so used to tossing it away like it’s worthless but considering all these invaluable qualities, we really should see plastic as a sacred material. That's where the aptly named Precious Plastic comes into the picture. This community runs workshops helping people re-purpose their plastic garbage into "precious" objects.

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The Background

Precious Plastic is an open source project launched by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens back in 2013, aiming to make the best use of plastic waste through DIY workshops. These days, it has grown into a vast international community, and in early 2016, Shanghai’s own Precious Plastic workshop was born at a hackerspace. At its core the mandate of Precious Plastics is to remold plastic garbage into reusable objects. The methodology regarding the process is free to the public. It’s fascinating to watch on Youtube, but can be quite overwhelming to get into with no experience. Hence the workshop -- albeit on a small-scale in Shanghai, with limited equipment but a bad-ass laser cutting machine. Precious Plastic Shanghai currently occupies a little space at Xin Che Jian, inside People Squared. Last Sunday, they ran a session where we made Christmas decorations out of plastic bottle caps.

About those bottle caps...

The bottle cap is made from a different kind of plastic than the bottle. It has an HDPE (#2) mark while the bottle is usually PET (#1). So it’s really difficult to recycle water bottles — different types of plastic have different melting temperatures and mold temperature ranges. The lids of coffee cups and some takeaway containers are usually made from PS (#6). Plastic straws are mostly made of PP(#5).

Getting crafty

At the workshop, we shredded the bottle caps into small pieces, blended them with different colors of HDPE scraps, melted them, and compressed them into plain sheets with crazy-looking colors. BYO Bottle Caps: Plastic bottle caps collected from the SmSh office. The workshop is led by Adele and Andrea, both core members of Precious Plastic Shanghai. With the helps from friends, they managed to create, or shall I say “hacked,” quite a few impressive machines for their project — a compression machine converted from an ordinary oven and a car jack, and a shredder that’s powered by a bike. They demonstrated the whole process and guided us through it. Aside from the practical stuff, they also offer a presentation on the current plastic pollution issue and where Precious Plastic Shanghai fits in. Checking the compressed plastic sheets. Laser-cut Christmas tree in progress. Our workshop consisted of fewer than ten people. On my visit, it was me, three mums and their kids. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel out of place. Nevertheless, it was a fun and educational experience. With the help from Adele, I brought a small Christmas tree and a few ornaments home. They are not perfect, but I love the wicked colors. Christmas tree made of coffee cup lids and other PS shreds. Made of bottle caps and other HDPE shreds In the end, it's a fun workshop — but it also functions as an inroad into thinking about the tons of plastic waste decomposing in landfills and garbage patches drifting in our oceans, and one's role in the collective apathy that turns a blind eye to the way we're treating plastics and the environment. The workshop inspires thought on the difficulties of dealing with plastics, and the necessity of coming up with more solutions to the problem, in addition to just straight recycling. Kudos to the Precious Plastic Shanghai team for bringing this project and inspiring that thought. The Precious Plastics Shanghai workshop costs 250rmb per person and lasts over two hours. You can book it through their WeChat (WeCHAT ID: PreciousPlasticSH) and pay through Yoopay.