some of you have mentioned that you
don't have access to all of the tools
that we use in our videos
so we figured let's make it easier
this video is sponsored by skillshare
did you know that only nine percent of
plastic that's ever been made has
actually been recycled even if you're
super careful about what you put in your
recycling bin there is no guarantee that
that will be recycled
therefore recycling plastic at home is a
great way to take responsibility for
your plastic waste
so in this video we're going to show you
our super simple method of turning waste
material into brand new products
using stuff you probably have around the
house
to do this the plastic you're going to
need is hdpe which is marked with a
number two
inside a recycling triangle
if you've seen any of our other videos
you'll know our favorite source for this
is milk bottle tops
let's run through the tools that you're
going to need first up you're going to
need some way to heat the plastic
our favorite thing to use is a flat
plate panini press you'll need some
baking paper to stop the plastic from
sticking to the press
a chisel or a sharp knife to clean up
the rough edges some sandpaper in a
range of grits
a drill a coping saw some clamps and a
good pair of oven gloves
our favorite are silicone oven mitts as
they don't stick to the melted plastic
so we know what some of you might be
thinking won't melting plastic release
toxic fumes
for some plastics yes but htp is
different
as long as the plastic you're melting is
clean and you don't go above the burning
point of 180 degrees c
then nothing harmful will be released
however if you are concerned about a
rogue piece of dirty plaster getting
into the mix
or if you're doing a larger scale you
may want to invest in a respirator
if you do we recommend a 3m respirator
with a set of abek1 filters which are
designed for non-organic vapors
so once you've grabbed your panini press
you'll want to line it in some way
to make sure it's non-stick baking paper
works great however if you're doing this
regularly you may want to pick up some
teflon baking sheets as these last a lot
longer
after your press has warmed up you'll
want to start loading in your plastic if
you're using lids you want to make sure
these are top down
to avoid any air being trapped
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you'll notice that we like to keep our
colors separate in the initial melting
phase
as this gives you a little bit more
control over the marbling patterns you
can achieve
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the twisting and folding throughout
ensures that any air bubbles are worked
out of the plastic as well as giving you
that striking marble pattern
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the next step is where the flat plate
press comes in handy as once you're
happy with the color mix
all you need to do is add some weight to
the top and turn the press
off and leave it to fully cool you then
end up with a lovely flat sheet of
plastic
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so first up we're going to show you how
to make some coasters out of your new
sheet material
simply mark on your desired shape clamp
it down and cut to the line
a coping saw is about as simple as you
can get but feel free to use anything
you have to hand
you'll then want to tidy up those rough
edges a sharp knife here works well
but we find a chisel gives that a little
bit more control
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so
as always the fabulous thing about
working with recycle plastic is that you
can save all of your offcuts for use in
future projects
so you could absolutely leave it there
however we wanted to give ours a sand up
to 400 grit
just on the top surface be aware that
sanding will create microplastics to
combat this we use a dedicated dust
extractor so we can clean up
after ourselves and reuse it later
next up we're going to make a pendant
using the same technique as we did
before we melted another slab in a
different color before cutting it out
and shaping it
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um
since this is for a piece of jewelry we
wanted to give it a slightly nicer
finish
so we started hand sanding at 120 grit
and took it all the way to 600.
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now our favorite way to polish recycled
plastic is to use one of these car
polishing tools but since this is a
limited tools project
we're going to assume you guys don't
have one of these and we're going to go
find something else that might work
instead
any type of polish will do the job to
give it a bit more of a shine so we
raised our kitchen cupboard and found a
few things that could work
we prefer to use a polish over a wax as
the wax would sit on top of the plastic
making it much harder to recycle in the
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future
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just before we show you how to make our
third and final product we just want to
take a quick moment
to talk about this video sponsor
skillshare skillshare is an online
learning community with thousands of
inspiring classes for creative people
it enables you to explore new skills
deepen those existing passions and just
get lost in your creativity
some topics we've got on our watch list
include sustainability and home
recycling
as well as presenting to camera and how
to make engaging content one class we've
been really enjoying recently
is building an etsy shop that sells by
parker guard since we recently launched
our online shop and etsy store this
class was fantastic at giving us tips on
how to make us more discoverable
so more people can find us and see our
recycled plastic products
it's curated specifically for learning
meaning there's no ads
and they're always launching new premium
classes this helps you to stay focused
and follow along wherever your
creativity takes you and you get all of
that for seven pound a month which is
just less than ten dollars with an
annual subscription
also the first 1000 of our subscribers
to click the link in the description
will get a free trial of skillshare
premium so you can explore your
creativity
so a massive thanks to skillshare for
sponsoring this video and supporting the
channel
now back to mountain plastic
the third and final product we're going
to show you how to make is a simple key
ring
once you've decided on your shape you
should need to follow the same steps as
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[Applause]
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before
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since this is just a key ring we didn't
want to sand it in any way but we did
want to have a slightly smoother finish
so we switched back over to the baking
paper instead of the teflon sheets
as these don't have a texture and it
gives an overall smoother finish
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so hopefully you found that useful we've
popped links to everything that we've
used in this video in the description
i also want to say a huge thank you to
our wonderful patrons these guys
massively help support what we do
and allow us to keep making videos and
if you're new to the channel you may
enjoy some of our other videos where
we've used pretty much the same
technique
to make loads of other products but if
making is not your thing then we also
sell 100 recycled plastic handmade
products on our website and our etsy
store
links in the description down below
thanks for watching cheers guys
i must look like shopping