Product Materials

HDPE – High Density Polyethylene

This material is made from recycled plastic such as milk, shampoo and water bottles, due to it being a thermoplastic HDPE has weak intermolecular bonds thus enabling the material to be heated and moulded as many times as required. HDPE is incredibly lightweight yet very strong which means that the products can be easily moved without little effort. Alongside this the material is chemical resistant, this implies that the material can easily be cleaned to remove any bacteria. This is particularly important for furniture in the heart space as food and drink will often be consumed during different hours of the day. In addition, the material is impact resistant which means that the material can withstand large amounts of force without breaking and therefore is incredibly tough.

I have decided to use this material for my product because I believe that in order to be more sustainable we need to use all the reusable plastic available on the planet to create new and exciting products. This will then eliminate the amount of plastic which is sent to landfill sites. Creating a new and exciting product out of basic every day house hold essentials excites me as I believe in the future we need to ensure that the majority of our products can have a sustainable life and embody a new function once their life has ended.

BILOGICAL PIGMENTS:

Once I had discovered which material I was going to use for my product I then looked into sustainable pigments. This is because industrially produced pigments are bad for the environment as well as incredibly toxic for the ecosystem which makes it hard for them to be broken down when the material is recycled. Therefore, I researched into the use of biological pigments, these are produced by living organisms and the colours found in the plants and flowers can be extracted and used as dyes. For example:

Chlorophyll absorbs yellow and blue wave lengths which reflect green- these can most commonly be found in leaves and plants.

Carotenoids produce red, orange and yellow pigments which can come from the extraction of flowers.