Plastic Fantastic! - Smile Plastics

A chair made from kids wellies, a table made from mobile phones, a sink made from CDs, bowls made from coffee cups and a guitar made from yoghurt pots! These are just some of the products people have been inspired to make from the recycled plastic sheeting produced by UK based Smile Plastics.

They started out in 1994 producing a range of sheets from old plastic bottles they then went on to recycling coffee cups and yoghurt pots. By 2004 their range of recycled plastic products had grown to include sheets made from CDs, toothbrushes, banknotes, mobile phones and kids wellies.
Most of the sheets are a crazily patterned mix of colours from these different materials. Not all the products will be to everyone’s taste, the mobile phone sheeting being especially loud. But they can produce sheeting to match your own colour schemes by using off cuts of single coloured industrial plastic. They can blend two colours in any ratio. For the minimalists amongst you, I would recommend the yoghurt pots, which create a plain white sheet. For the collectors and hoarders amongst you Smile Plastics are now also able to produce custom sheeting by embedding objects in a soft and squishy transparent material. Suggested things are old photos, negatives, letters, postage stamps, feathers – if you can supply it they can make it!

‘The recycled plastic boards combine a strong environmental message with an evocative and distinct aesthetic appeal, linked to the processing of plastics waste’

To find out more about these fantastic plastics and to see the amazing creations made from them, please go to:

www.smile-plastics.co.uk

written by Leonora, research & image by Petz