With an estimated 1 trillion plastic bags being consumed worldwide each year, it’s unfortunate to know that less than 5% of those bags ever end up being recycled. This effectively leaves roughly 95,000,000,000 opportunities for toxic chemicals to end up where they shouldn’t be.
While thought leaders, lawmakers and grocers continue to find alternative solutions at a higher level, Utah-based industrial designer Carter Zufelt decided to take matters into his own hands for his Senior Thesis project. After months of experimenting and fine-tuning various melt temperatures and processes for the plastic bags, he developed a new material: Müll.
Says Zufelt:
“Müll is a continuation of my Senior Project. Through my extensive research, I realized the growing problem that plastic trash causes. I decided to design and make several products and launch a Kickstarter to get the word out about recycling. Thus, we are reducing the amount of plastic trash in the environment together.”
Having already set up a distribution network with local waste facilities in Provo, Utah to repurpose plastic bags – as well as having created a downloadable guide for users to create their own material – Zufelt just might be onto something. But – he needs some additional support.
“Currently, the manufacturing process is tedious and time-consuming,” he explains. “It takes a long time to produce each piece, so we need machines to speed up the process. This will allow us to spend less time making and more time getting those bags off our streets!”
You can support his efforts by heading over to his Kickstarter page before the campaign closes on Wednesday.
