Polypropylene Waste
Fall 2024
ARCH 5500: Processing the Anthropocene
In collaboration with JunkLabz
Primary course goals from Fall 2024.
WASTE
Understand material waste streams once an item is thrown away
Understand how and where trash moves, where it goes and who it impacts most
Understand recycling, downcycling, and upcycling principals
Visit waste management facilities and meet with waste management professionals
Understand principles of circular economies
PLASTICS
Understand the impact of plastics from the global level down to the scale of the body, microplastics and nanoplastics
Understand the history of how and why plastics became so embedded into society
Understand the realities of plastic recycling relative to our increasing dependence on it as a material
Understand the different types of plastic, their recycling rates and potentials, as well as their performance qualities
FABRICATION
Get hands-on experience with plastic recycling processes - shredding, sheet pressing, etc
Explore a range of techniques for manipulating recycled plastic as a design material
Design and build a chair, seat, stool, or object at 1:1 scale
The Process
We work with #5 Polypropylene Plastic sourced locally from the UVA hospital in the form of sterile Pipette Boxes. Polypropylene plastic is technically recyclable, but according to a Greenpeace study titled Circular Claims Fall Flat Again from 2022, "US domestic reprocessing capacity for post-consumer PP#5 plastic waste is approximately 2-5%... When it is accepted by a MRF, PP#5 is typically collected as part of a mixed plastics #3-7 bale. There is negligible demand for these bales across the country, and the collected mixed plastics are often disposed of in landfills or destroyed by incineration." In reality, very little #5PP plastic is actually recycled.
To recycle this material, the source material is first shredded into flakes using an industrial shredder, then is weighed and mixed into different colorways. The plastic is then heated it up under pressure within an aluminum mold until it reaches a liquid state. Once all of the flakes have melted through, the mold is released from the heat press and once cool, the plastic sheet is demolded and ready to go.
Diversion
Each sheet is 35" x 35" x 1/2" and requires 10kg (22 lbs) of plastic. Inevitably there is some material overflow, which we save a re-shred for future sheets.
Colorways
We can mix and match colors to create beautiful combinations and mixtures.
Other Methods
There are other more DIY ways to work with the plastic using T-shirt press, free forming instead of using molds, using an extruder, etc.
Final Projects
Examples of student work from Fall of 2024
Bubble Chair, Alex Daley
In Tension Side Table, Sally Brock
Notch Table, Eli Vollmer
