Sentimental Plastics

Sentimental Plastics Documentation

morganbarnard — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:06:02 +0000

Photos from Wellington installation

robertappierdo — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:20:42 +0000

Here are some photos of our shipping container / viewing space / studio from September 2007 in Wellington.

We spent the month (part of Intenscity festival) creating the installation in the container and also did a video performance that became the running installation. Photos by David Read @ firstfloor.co.nz

Thumbnails below that link to images.

Link fest.

robertappierdo — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:36:13 +0000

Just been surfing around digging up some info for our ongoing project. Amazing what you can find out in 30minutes!

Background Facts and info
Paper vs. Plastic – The Shopping Bag Debate
Opinion piece with interesting information on paper versus plastic shopping bags plus short background on the method for making plastic bags.
www.greenfeet.net/newsletter/debate.shtml

Good blog about green issues with a focus on plastic bags + has cool counter about how many bags are being used this year!
agreenidea.com/

Irish bag tax hailed success / 2002
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm

A Necessary Eyesore?
Great bag facts from around the world dated 2002.
www.worldwatch.org/node/1499

Alternatives to plastic bags
http://www.dirtworks.net/BioBag/Biodegradeable-Kitchen-Bag.html
http://www.reusablebags.com/

The Plastics Industry
Industry news – you need to setup a login to read articles
http://www.myplasticsindustry.com/NewsHeadLines.aspx

“The Film and Bag Federation (FBF) is a business unit of the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) that actively promotes the growth of the plastic film and bag industry.”
http://www.plasticbag.com/

2006 econmic worth of the plastics industry
http://www.myplasticsindustry.com/showspecificfiles/myplasticsindustry/data.html

Industry related recycling awareness sites and agencies.
http://earth911.org/
http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/

History of the Plastic Bag

robertappierdo — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:14:02 +0000

Taken from http://www.plasticsindustry.org/about/fbf/environment.htm

1957 The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll are introduced.

1958 Poly dry cleaning bags compete with traditional brown paper.
1966 Plastic bag use in bread packaging takes over 25 to 30 percent of the market.

1966 Plastic produce bags on a roll are introduced in grocery stores.

1969 The New York City Sanitation Department’s “New York City Experiment” demonstrates that plastic refuse bag curbside pickup is cleaner, safer and quieter than metal trash can pick-up, beginning a shift to plastic can liners among consumers.

1974/75 Retailing giants such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Jordan Marsh, Allied, Federated and Hills make the switch to plastic merchandise bags.

1973 The first commercial system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags becomes operational

1977 The plastic grocery bag is introduced to the supermarket industry as an alternative to paper sacks.

1982 Kroger and Safeway start to replace traditional craft sacks with polyethylene “t-shirt” bags.
1990 The first blue bag recycling program begins with curbside collection.

1990 Consumer plastic bag recycling begins through a supermarket collection-site network.

1992 Nearly half of U.S. supermarkets have recycling available for plastic bags.

1996 Four of five grocery bags used are plastic.

How much oil is used to make a pound of typical plastics?

robertappierdo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:40:14 +0000

Check out this interesting article Morgan found about how plastic is made and also how much oil it takes to make a foam cup.

http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/03/14/plastics/index.html?source=daily

A day in the life….

robertappierdo — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:56:21 +0000

Timelapse of day sewing and ironing in our container. Music Deceptacon by Le Tigre.

Ready to roll.

robertappierdo — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:44:12 +0000

After 3 weeks of ironing, sewing, nightime projections, RSS feeds and eating PO boys at Sweet Mammas kitchen we are ready to open the doors on Sentimental Plastics shipping container. The mysterious faces of Courtenay Place have become our friends and the locals around our large yellow box have warmed to us nicely.

Our screen-strips are all sewn together and hanging from the roof of the container the Storybox projection kit is up and running sweetly and so now its…

on with the show…
Saturday 29th
Workshop on how to upcyle /1pm
Vj performance / 8pm
Tuesday 2nd – lunchtime workshop / 12.30pm
Thursday 4th - lunchtime workshop / 12.30pm
Friday 5th – Closing night performance / 8pm

Big thanks to Wellington City Council, Sweet Mammas Kitchen, Green party, Candywhistle, Seb, Jesse camera girl, DMDN students for there support.

Re-usable plastic bag from upcycled plastic

morganbarnard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:44:51 +0000

With some trial and error we were able to construct a pretty durable and usable shopping bag. This one was made from about 10 fused plastic shopping bags. It took about an hour to make, but now that we know how to do it, it should be much quicker.

Plastic Tie

morganbarnard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:35:47 +0000

Doug Easterly came by the other day and had a go at upcycling. He made this amazing necktie from fused plastic bags. This saturday he’ll come around the container to make version 1.0 of his geek tie with integrated USB flash drive and solarpowered lighting system.

We need your help

robertappierdo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:39:59 +0000

We are currently looking for volunteers to come and help us with our project.

The first part of of what we are doing is cutting/ironing/sewing plastic bags to upcycle them into new objects. This process is time intensive and the more help we can get the better!

The second part of what we are doing is video interviews with people about there opinion on the use of plastic bags. These will become part of the video installation that is screened.

Things we need.
- more ironing boards and irons
- more sewing machines

Schedule.
These are times the installation is open and when you can come down to hang out and work with us on upcycling the bags.

The installation is located in a shipping container outside Sweet Mammas Kitchen at the end of Courtney Place, Wellington. Right now at night we have video projections going.

Tuesday 18th Sept (Tomorrow) – 11am – 7pm
Thursday 20th 4pm – 7pm
Saturday 22nd 11am – 6pm
Tuesday 25th 11am – 6pm

DO IT AT HOME!
Another way you can help is upcycle your plastic bags at home and bring the finished product into us! What we are looking for is the squares of material that are produced once you have gone through the process of ironing the bag.

Check out this link to see how its done. Cheers makezine.com.

Contact info@dnation.co.nz if you are keen to help out.