Awesome Plastic

Tom Scott takes us to a spot in Cornwall, UK known as “LEGO Beach,” because countless LEGO pieces have washed up on its shore since 1997. Tom digs into the true story of the toys and the crazy amount of junk that has found its way into the sea. LEGO Lost at Sea has been documenting some of the many plastics they’ve found on beaches.

In the early 1900s, electricity was about to take the world by storm. But live wires couldn’t safely be used without insulation. Resin harvested from insects worked, but was too expensive to harvest. Necessity being the mother of invention, it drove chemist Leo Baekeland to develop what would become the world’s first plastic.

Director Pascal Schelbli, VFX Supervisor Marc Angele, and a team of talented CG artists created this short film which imagines what the world might be like if all of the plastics that make their way into the oceans came to life as sea creatures instead of polluting them like they actually do.

Etsy seller Casiopea3D makes these 3D-printed trays for keeping your cards and tokens neat and tidy when playing tabletop games. Each one has three card slots and four token trays. Measures appx. 7.9″ w x 2.4″ d. Sold in sets of two or more in a variety of colors.

A few years back, maker Peter Brown created a set of coasters that he cast from bubble wrap. He’s decided to revisit the project now that he’s got more experience with resin, and the new ones look even more frustratingly realistic than the originals – at least before he added the colored resin.

The UN Environment Programme introduces us to Nzambi Matee, a materials engineer based in Kenya, whose business Gjenge Makers creates low-cost construction materials. By heating and compressing waste plastic and sand, they form durable blocks which weigh half that of traditional clay bricks.

While we all know that plastic drinking straws are bad for the environment, it’s also true they’re good for making art. YouTuber Imaginative Guy shows off his crafting skills by turning a bendy green straw into a very convincing grasshopper fishing lure. He also made a shrimp using the same technique.

Thanks to their rectangular shape, Memobottles fit more efficiently inside of bags, and also won’t roll around. They’re made from BPA-free Tritan plastic and are safe to use with hot water, in the freezer, or in the dishwasher. Available in 6oz., 12oz., 15oz., and 25oz. sizes.

Rock out with your French curve out. Designer Mike Vaiksaar’s clever drawing tool for Suck UK makes geometry so much more fun, packing a protractor, set square, arc tool, and other useful stencils into the shape of an electric guitar.

Celebrate your love for Swedish home furnishings (and Swedish meatball) store IKEA with this playful bucket hat, made from the same woven polypropylene fabric used in their indestructible blue Frakta shopping bags. One size fits all.

This omnipresent stackable chair is known as a “Monobloc,” and it can be found everywhere from suburban backyards to major tourist attractions. What is it about this mundane, yet functional piece of molded plastic that made it so wildly popular? Neo digs into this so-called “context-free object.”

FORMcard is a pocket-sized thermoplastic sheet. It becomes pliable when dipped in hot water, allowing you to repair or augment objects or even make impromptu tools. It’s made from a starch-based bioplastic so it’s completely biodegradable.

Made from a durable, lightweight folded plastic shell, Solid Gray’s geometric packs look like something out of a science fiction flick. Originally only in white, we’re really digging the new gray one.

Korean artist Kang Duck-Bong creates these sculptures which look like they got hit with Photoshop’s “Wind” filter, using only pieces of PVC pipe, painted with urethane paint.

This may not be the first time it has been done, but it’s nonetheless inspiring to see something as simple as a plastic soda bottle be repurposed into something much, much bigger. (Thanks, Juanjo!)