Design Competition
COUNTY DURHAM RECYCLES PLASTIC
COMPETITION OPENS: Monday 17th July 2023
COMPETITION CLOSES: Friday 23rd February 2024
JUDGING COMMENCES: 4th March 2024
WINNER ANNOUNCED THE WEEK COMMENCING: 18th March 2024
Did you know that milk bottles can be recycled into a bench? Watch the recycling journey of a milk carton here:
RECOUP, Durham County Council and Marmax Recycled Products have come together to challenge students in the Northeast to design products that can be made from recycled plastic. The designs should solve some challenges to enable plastics recycling to be more convenient, whether at home, on the go, or enabling plastics that have been littered to be captured from the natural environment.
There are 2 competition categories; –
11
& Under
Entrants must be AGED 11 or under at the time of entry.
18
& Under
Entrants must be AGED 18 or under at the time of entry.
All entrants must include details of the education establishment that the entrant is a student of.
Children educated ‘EOTAS’ (education other than at school) may submit an entry. Please note where on the entry form it asks for the name of education establishment, please enter ‘EOTAS’. Should an EOTAS entrant be awarded first prize in either of the categories they will receive the individual prize and recognition. RECOUP will seek a suitable community group or place that could benefit from the item of equipment made from recycled plastic which would have otherwise been awarded to a school in such cases.
There will be a winning entry in each category, each of which will receive an item/product made from recycled plastic for their school or college to the maximum value of £900. The top 2 entrants in each category will receive a goodie bag of products made from recycled plastics from plastics recycling charity RECOUP.
Entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts and local council representatives.
This design challenge is aimed at inspiring students and communities to recycle more and educate on the practical challenges of infrastructure. The products designed should be practical and able to be manufactured from recycled plastic.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Design a product that can either go inside the home to help people separate plastics bottles, pots tubs, trays, and plastic bags and wrappings for recycling from their home.
OR
Design a product that can be used at work, in schools or colleges or commercial premises to separate plastics for recycling. This should consider the fact that bottles may be collected via a deposit return scheme in England within the next few years.
All designs should be able to be made from pre-formed recycled plastic sheeting and planking. Such planking and sheeting can be cut, shaped, drilled, and screwed to form a range of products. The planks are 9cm wide and 3cm deep.
You can download design templates by clicking the links below:
Enter Here
Opens: Monday 17th July 2023
Closes: Friday 23rd February 2023
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
One aspect of this design challenge is to design an item can go inside the home to help people separate plastics bottles, pots tubs, trays, and plastic bags and wrappings from their home.
In County Durham, plastic bottles, pots, tubs, and trays can be recycled at home and collected through their fortnightly household collection along with other materials such as paper, cans, and cardboard.
In County Durham glass is collected separately in an open plastic box.
Plastic bags and wrappings need to be taken to large supermarkets to be recycled in store and cannot go into the home recycling.
Nationally, people recycle more drinks bottles than bottles from other areas of the home such as the bathroom or bottles that require cleaning. People also recycle less than half of the plastic pots, tubs and trays that come with the food they buy such as yoghurt pots, margarine cartons, ice-cream tubs and fruit and vegetable trays than they buy. Individuals tell us they are reluctant to clean and sort plastics and prepare for recycling before placing into their recycling wheelie bin, ready for the local council to collect.
UK residents often find it difficult to recycle from other rooms in the house and it is a challenge to sort, clean and prepare plastics for recycling. You may wish to take this into account in your design.
At the moment plastic bottles are collected for recycling in all Local Authorities across the whole of England. However, when we are away from home i.e., at work, school, college or playing sport, we may not be able to recycle our plastic bottles or packaging due to the lack of recycling bins at the location or in the area we are walking or enjoying an activity.
It is expected that a Deposit Return Scheme will be introduced in England, in the not-too-distant future, to encourage the recycling of plastic bottles, and cans. This would see a deposit paid on plastic bottles and cans on purchase and the opportunity to redeem (get your money back) either by taking back to larger stores the empty bottles and cans, OR through an app on your phone which would enable people at home to scan the label on the bottle and can and get their deposit back via a digital credit system before placing in their household recycling. This may mean that residents would have to separately sort and collect their bottles and cans in order to take back or scan to get their deposit back. You may wish to include this aspect in your design.
ABOUT MARMAX RECYCLED PRODUCTS
Marmax Recycled Products are the market leaders in the manufacturing of 100% recycled plastic furniture which does not rot, corrode, or splinter and is guaranteed for a minimum of 25 years. Furthermore, once the product has come to the end of its life, it can be recycled to create more products.
Marmax has a vast range of products made from recycled HDPE. These are usually milk bottles that cannot be made back into milk bottles as the pellet is no longer of food grade quality. This competition represents a commitment by Marmax Recycled Products to encourage citizens to recycle more by asking students to design a product that they can make which will make recycling easier and simpler for citizens. Marmax Products transform plastic into high quality products with one bench using more than the equivalent of 2000 plastic bottles.
ABOUT BRITISH PLASTICS FEDERATION
The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association representing the plastics industry. It was founded in 1933 and has since become one of the leading organisations in the UK, representing over 550 members companies. The BPF covers the whole plastic supply chain including plastics recyclers, polymer suppliers and distributors, plastics processors, packaging manufacturers and equipment suppliers. The BPF represents over 80% of the UK plastics industry by turnover.
ABOUT RECOUP and PLEDGE2RECYCLE PLASTICS
RECOUP is a national charity and through Pledge2Recycle Plastics educates communities on how plastics are recycled and encourages individuals to reduce, reuse and recycle. RECOUP works with local authorities to assist on the messaging on plastics and help cut through the confusion of individuals on what can and cannot be recycled in household recycling. For further information please visit www.recoup.org and www.pledge2recycle.co.uk
Enter Here
Opens: Monday 17th July 2023
Closes: Friday 23rd February 2023
