Maya Wang

This week I completed the seat cushion using the same process of continually making plarn and crocheting. Learning from the failures of the past two weeks, I only collected plastic bags that were thicker than normal trash bin liners. In total, I used 60 plastic bags for the shell and about 2 sq meters of bubble wrap for stuffing. The crochet stitches to decrease is as follows:

sc = single chain, dec = decreasing stitches by skipping one chain

• sc 20, dc 1 x 6
• sc 19, dc 1 x 6
• sc 18, dc 1 x 6
• sc 17,  dc 1 x 6
• … continuing the pattern
• sc 5, dc 1 x 6, then stuffing the inside
• sc 4, dc 1 x 6
• sc 3, dc 1 x 6
• sc 2, dc 1 x 6
• sc 1, dc 1 x 6
• dc x 6
• dc 1 to close

I decided to use bubble wrap for the stuffing because like plastic bags, it is a very common material and its cushioning properties were perfectly suited for the stool/cushion that I was making.

This is the final result and completed cushion. I tested it out, and it held my weight very well, and didn’t break or warp. The cushion was also very dense and heavy, but the physical properties worked well for the project I created. I’ve come to a few conclusions about plarn and crocheting with it.

1. It is incredibly easy to make plarn and crocheted plarn projects at home, as it only requires scissors, plastic bags, crocheting skills, a crochet hook and some time.
2. Crocheting with plarn can be easier than crocheting with regular yarn, as plarn does not tangle as easily since it isn’t a real fiber.
3. There may be a learning curve with crocheting in general, but for those with previous crocheting experience, skills can be transferred easily.
4. #2 HDPE plastic bags that are somewhat thicker than the usual trash bag material are optimal for making plarn.
5. Plarn is susceptible to breaking when in its pure plastic bag form, but crocheted plarn is a dense and durable material that can hold the weight of a person.
6. Plastic bubble wrap is an optimal stuffing alternative for projects such as crocheted furniture or even toys.
7. The unique properties of colored plastic bags can result in interesting and serendipitous designs.

Upon the completion of this project, I planned on making a .pdf or zine tutorial to teach others how to make plarn and crochet it. However, due to the time constraints I was unable to create it. Additionally, since many plarn tutorials exist on the internet, I felt that making a guide would be redundant. I considered the feedback from my final presentation, and concluded that a tutorial or workshop translated into Chinese would be a way to introduce the skills and findings from my project into the Shanghai community. I would say that crocheting is a skill that many older Chinese women would know, similar to sewing and knitting, so scaling this project is actually very plausible. Plarn making and handcrafts go hand-in-hand, and simply showing these communities how to make plarn would open infinite possibilities of reusing plastic bags. Since my project also uses two very commonly found “waste” materials – plastic bags and bubble wrap – sourcing is not an issue and raises awareness around how ubiquitous plastic bags are in China. There is yet to be a nationwide plastic bag ban, so reusing existing plastic bags in a way that gives them value and can easily be implemented in the community is a great place to begin.

This week I spent about 10 hours crocheting and making plarn, and the process was fairly simple. At this point I have collected about 24 medium-sized plastic bags. I alternated between creating plarn and crocheting in rows. The crochet pattern that I used to make this hexagonal shape is as follows:

sc = single chain, inc = chaining twice into one stitch

• 6 single chain magic ring
• 6 inc
• 1 sc, 1 inc x 6
• 2 sc, 1 inc x 6
• 3 sc, 1 inc x 6
• … pattern continues with adding one single chain each time the pattern repeats
• 20 sc, 1 inc x 6

Afterwards, I will be single chaining each stitch to build the hexagon vertically to give it shape.

As a make-up event for those who didn’t attend the beach cleanup workshop, we held a schoolwide swap event. However, as a result of poor timing & planning on our behalf, the outcome was not very successful. We began by advertising the swap event about a week before it happened, both through the IMA newsletter, NYUSH events newsletter, and word-of-mouth. The swap was held on December 5th at 6pm, but what we hadn’t considered was how that week was a busy final project preparation week for many people who would have been interested in attending. On the day of the swap, nobody showed up to the 2nd floor cafe besides us, the student event coordinators, and Marcela + additional IMA faculty. Marcela helped out a lot by creating the event poster and having University Communications come to document the event, but with the small turnout we had, there was nothing to document. At about 6:15, we decided to informally hold it outside of the IMA lab in the 8th floor lounge. 

We used the tables that were previously used as lost-and-found containers to put the few items that people brought to swap. I brought a sweater, a reusable glass bottle, and an umbrella for the swap. Marcela brought a coat that was too large for her – which I ended up taking, and Sara took the sweater that I no longer had use for. Outside of our class, Professor Minsky brought a pair of shoes that were too small, and we also added some other household objects that were lying around the lab for people to take.

Some takeaways from this failed event were:

• Organize it well beforehand – i.e. boost advertising by making more flyers, telling more people, and planning it earlier
• Hold it during a time where people are not as busy/at a time where people would have things to swap, i.e. at the end of the year when people are moving out of their dorms/apartments
• Make the location somewhere with a lot of traffic
• Have additional incentives for people to come to the event: i.e. music, food, community

This week I experimented with which kinds of plastic bags made the best “plarn”. Plarn is short for plastic yarn, which is made from plastic bags cut into strips. The three kinds of plastic that I tested were all plastic bags made with #2 plastic, High-density polyethylene. The texture and color of the bags were different, and I wanted to see how well they would hold up when cut and crocheted together.

I used this easy to follow plarn tutorial graphic from http://www.plasticbagcrafts.com/make-plarn/

The finished plarn from the thinnest plastic bag broke very easily, but I was able to crochet a simple circle with it. For the thickest plarn, the texture was rough and hard to work with. I found that the plastic bag with middle-range thickness was the easiest to work with both in terms of cutting and crocheting.

Left: Thin plarn, Right: Thick plarn

I also experimented with the scraps from the handles and bottom of the plastic bags, cutting them in ways that would make a continuous strip. However, this experiment failed as the strip ripped right away from the cuts that I made.

For my next steps, I will be collecting plastic bags with the same texture as the #2 HDPE Family Mart bag and begin creating large amounts of plarn. I have also decided to make a crocheted stool/seat cushion in order to test crocheted plarn’s ability to hold weight.

My thoughts on the Cradle to Cradle reading are pretty much in agreement with the author. The problem with our current economic model and general societal behavior is that quality and success are only measured by numerical, profit-based standards. There needs to be an overall mindset change and rerouting of economy. Simplification and convenience are merely myths upheld by the current destructive belief that resources are infinitely reusable. We need to look at how nature sustains itself and carry that over to our own businesses, industries, and daily life. As for the reading Plastic and the work of the biodegradable, the idea is less clear to me. The author writes about the system in which plastic actually degrades, and the “employment” of various organisms in order to bio-degrade plastic. While her writing is not as concise, my understanding is that when plastic enters our oceans, it is not only an issue from an ecological standpoint but also a political one.

I am refining my final project concept and focusing on experimentation solely using plastic bags and handcraft techniques.

My hypothesis pertains to the “scrap” material created from plastic bags. If scrap plastic is collected and ironed together, there will be virtually no waste from creating plastic bag string. Additionally, I would like to develop a guide on how to cut and fold different kinds of plastic bags to create plastic string with minimal waste.

1. Collect as many plastic bags as possible – record the shape, type of plastic, and other physical qualities
2. Experiment making plastic thread/yarn/string with as many different kinds of plastic bags – document (this is crucial for making the guide)
3. Make a yarn winder out of cardboard (https://youtu.be/9ybkkoEggNg)
4. Create several handcrafts using crocheting and knotting techniques.
5. Create online guide complete with pictures, descriptions, illustrated guides, and instructions

The materials I will need:

• plastic bags
• scissors
• an iron
• crochet hooks

The final products I hope to end up with are several plastic string crafts: a bag, a rug, chinese knots, a few skeins of plastic string, a yarn winder, as well as a comprehensive .pdf guidebook to teach others how to make plastic string for crafting from different kinds of plastic bags.

Bioplastic experiment

I decided to experiment with the cornstarch bioplastic recipe by adding crushed dried tea leaves to add texture.

The original recipe:

7.5 g of cornstarch

5 g of glycerin

5 mL of vinegar

50 mL of water

Combine and stir on medium heat until transparent and thickened.

I added only 1 g of crushed dry tea leaves but if I were to experiment again, I would add more to make the mixture more fibrous.

After the bioplastic thickened in the pot, I used a spatula to spread it onto an acrylic sheet to dry. The next day, the bioplastic had dried, but there were holes where it was spread too thin. The other areas were only 1 – 2 mm thick and the volume decreases by a lot when it dries.

From the readings, I understand that bioplastics and biomaterials are not a panacea to environmental issues. While biodegradability and raw material sourcing are at the core of bioplastics with the framework of cradle to cradle, there are still other factors such as energy and cost that heavily influence production and manufacturing. I would say that cost is the main driving force in a majority of business decisions, and without a way to make bioplastics more cost & energy effective, they are still in an experimental phase.

For my final project, I would like to continue with my experimentation with plastic bags and traditional crafting techniques. The reason is that there is still so much excess plastic to be used and recycled in the world, and in order to make progress and create new things, the existing problems should be addressed first.

With my midterm, I experimented with ways to create materials out of plastic, such as rope, “pleather”, rivets, and o-rings. While these materials were used effectively and had a purpose in my project, the piece I created only served as an awareness statement. I will experiment and try to improve both the materials and the functions of them.

Ways to expand on my current experiments and research:

• Build a braiding/rope making machine: https://youtu.be/ddenqErLL0Q
• Build a plastic bottle cutting machine: https://youtu.be/TRy2sD_k57g
• Make plastic bottle rope: https://youtu.be/OINRkRf3aFs
• Crochet using plastic bag rope
• Weave using plastic bag rope
• Make Chinese knots using plastic bag rope
• Experiment with heat pressing plastic bag/bottle rope

I am also very open to collaborating with another person using the techniques I have learned. I often find that it is easier to think of new concepts when there are more people with different perspectives involved.

Last class, we had Adele from Precious Plastics Shanghai lead a workshop on upcycling plastic to make a stool. She first spoke about how Precious Plastics started in Shanghai, and how it has grown from a small scale organization to become a larger local community. One of the major parts of Precious Plastics Shanghai is that they take the community’s plastic waste and give it a new life by using various upcycling methods. During Adele’s lecture, we also learned about the different kinds of plastic and the specific qualities they have. We learned that type 1 plastic is the most commonly recycled plastic on a large scale, but that we can recycle types 2, 4, and 5 ourselves using the Precious Plastics’ methods. Their lab in Xinchejian has many kinds of machines for upcycling – a heat press, motor-powered shredder, an injection machine, and even a bike-powered shredder. Our re-maker space/lab also has heat presses and a motor-powered shredder, as well as an oven and hydraulic press.

Adele brought examples from Precious Plastic Shanghai’s plastic experiments, with variations in material form, heat, duration, texture, and molds. As we moved towards the demo portion of the workshop, she taught us how to sort, shred, and heat plastic. We began by sorting the various kinds of plastic that we brought to class, and the optimal type of plastic to use is type 2 because it has the most flexible melting range, and it also often comes in a variety of colors.

We then cut up type 2 plastic bottles and put them through the shredder. The resulting material was small plastic flakes that are easily melted. We used some pre-shredded plastic flakes to use as the material for the stool. The mold for the stool was a metal pan that we waxed down, and we filled it with plastic flakes and put it into the oven to melt at 180 degrees Celsius for over 30 minutes.

While the stool seat was “cooking”, we conducted another experiment with the plastic flakes using the heat presses. We sandwiched the flakes between two baking sheets – one set with matte sheets and one set with glossy sheets – and pressed them down for 10 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. Since we removed the resulting plastic sheets too early, we were left with a wavy and not quite fully fused object. If we pressed them again and left them to cool, the result would be more uniform.

We were unable to complete the stool because of class time, but the way the in-progress stool seat looked was very interesting. There were pockets of unmelted plastic and air, so we left it inside the oven to melt more.

Response to Social Innovation in China

This presentation/reading by Collective Responsibility is an in-depth analysis of entrepreneurship that deals with social issues in China. China is an interesting country to look at because of its economic growth. Now as business in China moves towards trying to solve social problems and induce social change, it is crucial to look at what kinds of entrepreneurship works, and what potential problems could arise. My takeaway is that in order to make a long-lasting impact, making the effort to scale social innovations is the most important and most difficult part. Organizations in Shanghai that deal with upcycling, like Precious Plastics Shanghai and UseDem are both committed not only to the reach but to the scaleability of their respective business models.

Response to Multiple-Helix Collaboration for the Development of a Circular Economy

A circular economy is comprised of four components:

1. Governments – which finance research and development, as well as fund universities and research institutes.
2. Non-Governmental Organizations – which conduct additional research and development for projects that are outside of governmental interests.
3. Consumers (Civic Society and the General Public) – who “vote” through purchase and can make or break a business model.
4. Companies in the Public Sector – which run campaigns and spread information to impact consumers’ choices.

It is the cooperation and collaboration between these groups that lead to successful business and social impact. When applied to the Chinese economy, Precious Plastics Shanghai and UseDem fall under the category of NGO or small company respectively. While both organizations have a small consumer base already, it seems that there is governmental assistance – either financially or institutionally – in order for the circular economy to thrive. 

I firmly believe that the government and larger companies in the public sector hold a lot of power in determining the economic and social trends, and it is imperative for consumers and smaller NGOs/companies to lead by example.