Recycling Equipment for Beach Plastic

Hi, I?m Ally

Working as a commercial diver in Scotland for 13 years,  I was angry at the amount of plastic I was finding on our beaches and in the sea. During lockdown, I salvaged a ship full of waste plastic working for HM Coastguard near the Isle of Skye. Diving in waste plastic everyday, and seeing it threaten a place I loved, inspired me to do something about it.

My concept was to take ocean plastic pollution in the form of rope and fishing net, which is polypropelene, and turn it into plastic plant pots that can be used to grow plants, flowers or bee friendly pollinators, turning a negative for the environment into a positive, and growing awareness of plastic pollution.

me diving in waste plastic during lockdown.

The Beginning - Proof of Concept.

Through trial and error I started making small plant pots in my shed from recycled rope. I shredded the rope and net and using a precious plastic machine then moulded it into small pots which we sold at Leith market in Edinburgh. We wanted to see if anybody was interested in what we were doing - to prove our product concept. These were very popular and sold out, and from there the business has grown.

We only use 100% waste rope collected in Scotland. We manufacture in Scotland, and our plant pots can be recycled again creating a circular economy and a CO2 saving.

Where we are now.

We now have a recycling partner that can recycle rope and net on a very large scale which we turn into our products - but they still can't take rigid beach plastics.

We partner with beach cleaning groups to recycle the rope and net collected from beach clean ups in Scotland. Last year we spent 4 days on the Isle of Ulva near Mull where we recycled over 1000kg of the rope and net, removing plastic pollution from the beaches, and turning it into usable products.

In 2023 we are working with 14 Scottish Islands to recycle rope and net from beach clean ups on the west coast of Scotland, but we want to recycle the hard plastics as well.

The rope and net is collected (that's me above), sorted by hand, then sorted according to colour. We then recycle the rope in the Uk and manufacture it into our plant pots in Scotland. When you recycle rope and net from a beach clean all the different colours mix together (like paint) giving the plant pot a matt grey finish. We recycled the fishing net above and made it into these matt grey plant pots below.

Why are we crowd funding?

We can recycle the rope and net from beach cleans but we can't recycle the rigid plastics, which currently go to landfill.

So we want to buy industrial shredding equipment in order to shred and mould the beach plastic which can't currently be recycled. We plan to identify and collect small usable pieces of plastic which we will then turn into garden plant pots and other garden products. We have over 2 years experience of working with rope and net and this has taught us that this material can be manufactured with.

By using our own equipment, and our own knowledge of plastic, we are able to mould plastic waste which commercial manufacturers can't currently work with.

This plastic can't be recycled at the moment - but we can.

Creative Scotland Crowdmatch?

Our project is part of the 2023 Creative Scotland Crowdmatch competition. Creative Scotland will match individual pledges from the crowd up to  10,000. So if you donate  20 to our cause, your donation will be matched with a  20 pledge from Creative Scotland, effectively doubling your donation!

How we?ll spend the money raised?

Our first aim is to purchase a plastic granulator, this will shred the sorted plastic after it has been cleaned into a ground up plastic we can mould. A plastics granulator costs  2500.

If we get additional funding then we would buy a commercial injection moulding machine second hand, for  4000, this would likely be a Boy 22 Injection moulding machine or similar.

Our Rewards 

 £15 Reward - Yellow Chelsea Ocean Plastic Pot Set  

As a reward for a  15 donation we are offering our Chelsea 13cm pot and saucer set, (the first pot we ever made) in yellow - made from a rope that we collected from  Inverness in Scotland.

Yellow Chelsea Ocean Plastic Pot Set

 £20 Reward - Matt Grey Bloom Ocean Plastic Pot Set 

As a reward for.  20 donation we are offering our 12cm Ulva Ocean Plastic Pot above made from rope and fishing net collected on the isle of Ulva near mull in Scotland in April 2022. These have a flat matt grey finish.

Matt Grey Bloom Ocean Plastic Pot Set

£20 Reward - Navy Marble Bloom Ocean Plastic Pot Set 

As a reward for £20 donation we are offering our 12cm Ocean Plastic Pot above made from navy blue PP rope in Scotland. These have a deep marble pattern to them made by exploiting inherent flaws in the raw material 

 £35 reward - A Pair Terracotta / Peach Bloom Ocean Plastic Pots

As a reward for a  35 donation we are offering a pair of our  12cm  Ocean Plastic Pots below made from rope and fishing net and manufactured in Scotland. They have a marbling pattern unique to each pot.

Teracotta Bloom Ocean Plastic Pot Set

 35 reward - A Pair of Mint Green Bloom Ocean Plastic Pots

As a reward for a  35 donation we are offering a pair of our  12cm  Ocean Plastic Pots below made from rope and fishing net and manufactured in Scotland. They have a marbling pattern unique to each pot and a deep Mint Green colour.

Mint Green Bloom Ocean Plastic Pot Set

All rewards are in stock and will be shipped within 7 days of pledging 

In summary

We can recycle rope and fishing net, but we now want to recycle rigid beach plastics from beach clean ups in Scotland into garden products, and we need your help to invest in new machinery- a granulator and injection moulding machine, to do it. 

Thank you, 

Ally