Upcycling Plastic: From Refashioned Cushion Covers to Cutting-Edge Carbon Nanotubes

 Upcycling is an idea that has been around for decades but is finally growing in popularity. 70 years ago, upcycling didn’t have a fancy name but was just an essential part of life as many families adopted a ‘make do and mend’ attitude towards worn out items. Today, most people discard redundant objects but an increasing number are using their imaginations to turn unwanted clothes, toys and household items into unique pieces which serve a whole new purpose. This rise of upcycling came during the 2008 economic crash but the trend has stayed with us as individuals crave bespoke, handmade items whilst our society as a whole is more aware of the environmental impact of unnecessary waste.

So what exactly is upcycling? Upcycling is the act of reusing an unwanted object or material in such a way that you create a product of higher value or higher quality than the original item. In simple terms, upcycling restores, revamps, repurposes and recreates outdated objects in order to give them a new lease of life, whilst also decreasing the level of waste sent to landfill and the amount of money spent. Whilst upcycling forms a creative hobby, it is also great for helping lessen the stress on our environment as it prevents people from needing to replace items which are made from brand new materials which are harvested from the finite resources of Earth. Reusing plastic items can be particularly beneficial because they are so hard to dispose of or recycle. Most of us realise by now that simply throwing plastic away really isn’t that simple at all as this synthetic material very slowly decomposes into smaller and smaller pieces which still exist in our oceans and soils hundreds of years from now. Yet did you know that recycling plastic isn’t very effective either? Plastic products can be extremely varied, from their colours to their molecular makeup, their shape and size to the chemicals which are added to them. Due to this diversity, plastics cannot be recycled all together and must be separated into groups, many of which cannot be recycled at all. Even when plastic is recycled, the heating and cooling process which melts down the material causes a massive loss in quality and often the plastic cannot be used for its original purpose, or any high value purpose for that matter. Therefore, upcycling is a great way to extend the life span of products for as long as possible, decreasing demand for new materials and freeing up space in our cramped landfills.

With people around the world spending more time at home recently, now could be a great opportunity to test out your creative skills and finally do something with that jumper you never wear or the coffee table you’ve always hated. If you can’t make it to the coast to carry out your normal beach clean at the moment, having a go at upcycling can still let you give our planet a helping hand. Many of the ideas people have for transforming old items are truly incredible and it’s easy to get lost on the internet marvelling at others’ creations, trust me! Woolly jumpers which shrunk in the wrong wash can be turned into cushion covers or a comfy new stool seat with just a needle and a little bit of thread. Clothes can even be wrapped around tired looking lampshades or, if you’re feeling particularly organised, be used to create next Halloween’s costume. Outdated cassettes you hold on to despite no longer owning a tape player can be glued together to form a retro pencil pot whilst old posters can be used to hide coffee mug rings which decorated old table tops. Ageing washing machine drums make brilliant outdoor fire pits and barbeques, chipped mugs can hold small plants whilst unwanted skis and poles can be fashioned into hanging clothes drying racks. Discarded planks of wood can quickly be cut, sanded and waxed to create tables, stools, bird boxes or even worktops. By now you can see that the ideas really are endless and some people haven’t stopped at household items either, in fact their whole houses are carefully crafted from upcycled materials. A mishmash of discarded windows have been reused to create large glass walls, shipping containers are refurbished as garages or bedrooms whilst something as simple as a salad bowl can be transformed into a new bathroom sink.

If you aren’t feeling quite that creative, or if your mind is running wild with ideas but lack the materials to build with, there are lots of places you can get unwanted objects. Social media is a great start with many objects given away for free in the hundreds of groups which have popped up recently. You can also ask around friends and family, visit charity shops, browse Ebay, Gumtree or Craigslist or even ask local businesses if they might have any scrap materials you could use or buy from them cheaply. For more inspiration, you can check out websites such as ‘Upcycle That’ or ‘Pillar Box Blue’ which has an A to Z list of crafts which will keep you busy for weeks.

Despite the environmental benefits of upcycling, many still believe that plastic needs to be eradicated from our lives for good, not just reused a few times. Whilst this is certainly true regarding single-use plastics which can be relatively easily replaced with more sustainable materials, some plastic products still have a core role to play in modern society. For example, plastic is the perfect material to make sterile medical equipment from whilst many of our designs for renewable energy rely on plastic too. So it seems that not only must we look at cutting down on the production of plastic but we must also consider how we tackle plastic at the end of its life as some synthetic objects will inevitably remain in our lives.

Whilst upcycling has taken off on a small scale, what exactly is happening on a larger scale to help reduce the enormous environmental issue of waste? It has taken a while for industries to get over the miracle that is the ‘material of a thousand uses’ but companies and scientists are now interested in how we can make better use of plastic and protect our fragile environment. Whilst many challenges have been faced, there now appear to be several ideas in the pipeline which could change the way we deal with plastic waste dramatically. One team of chemists in America think they have discovered an efficient way of potentially upcycling plastic. On a microscopic level, plastics are made up of individual molecules which are strung together to form a chain. When plastic is recycled, these chains are melted and reshaped but the material often deteriorates in the process. Other processes attempt to break the chains into smaller pieces but this requires a huge amount of energy which in turn simply produces another source of pollution. The new technique however, uses a catalyst to remove some hydrogen from the chain and then this hydrogen cuts the bonds which hold the chain together. Whilst this is difficult to comprehend, the final result is a valuable liquid which can be used as solvents and detergents. So far, this process has only been tested on polyethylene; however this is the world’s most common type of plastic, found in food packaging, waterproof coatings, cable insulation and construction materials and so if this process can be adapted to suit a large scale, it could make a massive difference to a mighty one third of the plastic we throw away.

Other scientists are hoping to kill two birds with one stone by not only finding a new use for plastic but also helping build our modern and efficient future. Black plastic is frequently used in food packaging and yet it is tricky to recycle, meaning it forms a large chunk of the plastic waste which is sent to landfill. Some experiments have targeted this black plastic and managed to break down the small chains which they consist of and capture the carbon which is stored within. These carbon molecules are then used to create extremely high value materials such as nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes really are incredible feats of engineering, with each tube being almost as small as our own DNA; that’s 80,000 times thinner than a human hair! These tiny but strong nanotubes are used in some of our most cutting-edge designs such as touchscreen displays, flexible electronics and revolutionary fabrics which create energy as you move around. One of their biggest potential uses however, is in electricity cables. Currently, power stations are located close to the places where energy is used to reduce a loss of electricity through heat, yet 8% of the world’s electricity is still lost in transmission. As we look towards renewable energy, this could pose a massive problem as wave hubs, wind farms and large solar farms typically lie far away from where people live, increasing the distance electricity has to travel down cables and resulting in an even bigger loss in electricity. Carbon nanotubes however, are much less susceptible to overheating and melting and could allow us to transport renewable energy over long distances with much greater efficiency. Other researchers have even managed to turn plastic waste into batteries which, although don’t last as long as standard lithium ones, have a much faster charging time. These batteries could be incredibly useful in electric cars which are set to grow massively in the next few decades and sees today’s problem of non-biodegradable waste being used to create tomorrow’s materials and tomorrow’s solutions.

Whilst upcycling only forms one piece of the puzzle that is needed to fix our plastic problem, using this traditional outlook on our unwanted items, both on an individual and an industrial scale, could lead to a more sustainable future. If we use our imaginations to recreate, reinvent and refurbish, not only will we make a massive difference to our planet in terms of pollution and resource extraction but we can make the world around us a little more unique, a bit more exciting and a lot more breath-taking.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood