Get a grip on plastic: give a useless plastic item a new lease of life by bringing it to a library collection point or participating in a plastic workshop
Plastic as a material is, at the same time, very familiar and quite unfamiliar to us. We see it everywhere but rarely come across it in other forms than finished products. To make plastic more familiar and appreciated, we organise a plastic workshop in the summer, where anyone can come and make new plastic items from recycled material. We are already collecting materials at library collection points.
Life and death of a plastic item
When a plastic item reaches the end of its service life and can no longer be repaired to function in its original purpose, it can be used as raw material for a new plastic item. Typically, an old plastic item is turned into a new product as follows: the item is taken to a designated collection point for the plastic material in question and then to a suitable processing plant. At the plant, plastic items are usually crushed or shredded and separated from other materials. Separated plastic granules are then processed into a desired form for the manufacturers of new products, often into small pellets suitable for different manufacturing processes.
In the plastic workshop in the summer, the residents get to know and participate in the process themselves, though in a smaller setting of a craft workshop rather than a large plant. Anyone can come to the workshop to produce new plastic items from shredded waste plastic under the guidance of professionals. The workshop is organised in cooperation with the Muoviamo working group, which aims to utilise the potential of art to recycle and process plastic waste for reuse. The circulation of plastic materials is critical for the well-being of our planet, sustainable economic growth and rational consumer culture. But it can also be fun, creative, beautiful and engaging, as we hope this workshop will prove.
The collection point is for PP5 plastic only
Plastic is a generic name for dozens of different materials. A bucket, cling film and plastic foam look and feel so different precisely because they are made of quite different materials. Different plastics behave differently, are suitable for different purposes, and require different further processing.
We only collect PP5 plastic in the library collection container. Light and durable, PP5 – or polypropylene – is one of the most common plastics. It is used in food packaging, including yoghurt and syrup pots, and various plastic items, such as buckets, toys and garden furniture. We want to collect PP5 plastic for this particular purpose because it can be melted easily and evenly with the machines in the plastic workshop.
Polypropylene can be identified by the triangle symbol PP-05, which is usually visible on the bottom of the item. The type of plastic may also be indicated on the package label. Different plastics work for different purposes and cannot be freely mixed. Separating and removing items of another plastic type means extra work and takes a lot of time. That is why it is important to only bring the proper type of plastic to the collection point and sort your plastic items into the correct recycling bin at home.
Circulation of plastic requires sorting
The workshop is implemented as part of Espoo’s Closed Plastic Circle – from Pilots into Practice project aimed to strengthen the recycled plastic market by improving the matching of demand and supply of recycled plastic. The project consists of several work packages focusing on finding the best ways of recycling the different plastic streams.
The workshop does not set out to create a new PP5 plastic recycling process – we do not intend to burden Espoo residents participating in the voluntary workshop with processing all PP5 plastic from Espoo. Rather, the workshop aims to increase understanding of the value of plastic as a material because of the residents’ critical role in sorting plastic waste. Even the finest recycling system cannot work without sorted plastic. A high sorting level is required to increase the ratio of recycled material significantly, and without a good collection system for packaging plastic, nobody will invest in the collection of other fractions. Therefore, we want to offer residents the opportunity to learn more about this versatile material. We hope the collection points will be filled with sorted PP5 plastic and the workshop with interested residents.
You can bring your old PP5 plastic items to Sello Library from 25.3. to 12.4. or Tapiola Library from 13.4.. to 30.4.!
We will update more information about the plastic workshop on this page as the arrangements proceed.
- Sustainability