Melted plastic pancake.



After washing my plastic I chucked some of it into an old pot and melted it down. I did it in the kitchen with the extractor fan on full blast. Supposedly the correct plastic (Recyclable plastic 2) won't let of any toxic fumes, so I must not have identified all of plastic correctly because it smelled terrible.

 

I estimated that it was all thoroughly melted without opening the lid to check.

I took it outside, scooped it out onto my pre-made sandwhiching board (mdf coated in tin foil) and clamped it tight shut.

 

Every 10 or so minutes I tightened the clamps. Plastic shrinks when it cools and this prevents cracking and bubbling.

 

After an hour of cooling I opened up my sandwich press to find this:
a colourful globular pancake of plastic. Some pieces had melted better than others.

 

There were numerous interesting colours and shapes, so I took a fair few photos.

 

 

 

 

This image is my chosen favourite for the week.

The presence of the green boottle cap from a bottle of 'kiwi-blue' stands out for me. It isn't completely melted and has significant meaning to it.

Most brands of water, especially in New Zealand like to proclaim themselves as pure and good for the environment, however this doesn't stop the consumer of the product from dumping the bottlecaps on the beach or in a river.

Something so 'pure' can be washed out to sea, eaten by fish,birds, or other animals and choke them to death.

 

I also liked the comparison of beach plastic, and the practical plastic in the photo lab reflecting the image.