Free Plastic just turned 3!

It’s crazy to think that more of Free Plastic’s life has been spent in then pandemic than out of it. This past year was similar to to Year 2 where our projects, events, and overall progress waxed and waned with COVID and our needed safety precautions, and through it all, we still managed to have some good times and knock out some fun new pieces!

Early into Year 3, we made a new trophy for The Children’s Trust Battle of the Books summer reading program. Those trophies gobbled up over a pound of unrecycleable ocean plastics. And shortly after that, we joined Commisioner Raquel Regalado at their first D7 beach cleanup in Crandon Park on Key Biscayne.

Our friends at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center collected and delivered over 50 pounds of bottle caps for us, and we recycled over 18 pounds of that into the biggest poem to date, a 90 foot poem with over 200 characters installed on teh facade of Brucie Ball Educational Center in Kendall. We also partnered with Lotus House Thrift Chic Boutique for Plastic Poetry 004, which closed out the 2021 Plastic Poetry program.

From here we needed to look at our own infrastructure, so we did two things:

(1) We put together an Advisory Board consisting of professionals from various sectors that will help guide us to better achieve our goals of educating our community about plastics, their use, and the reality of recycling in South Florida, while simultaneously aiding us in the development of new products and techniques to harvest and recycle unlabelled and otherwise unrecyclable plastics found in our communities and environment.

(2) We secured a warehouse for our new HQ, which gave us a dedicated space to build and grow. At only 220 square feet, the warehouse was a tight fit, but it allowed us the opportunity to really look at what our needs were along with where we wanted to grow. Unfortunately, a few personal life issues meant that we would have to move to a new warehouse before fully revealing the first one. We are currently in the process of moving, and we are SO EXCITED to show everyone our new, new space!

There were a few small projects that popped up through the year. We completed a series of Little Star trophies for our friends at ICU baby for their HOPE Parade. We were also approached to collaborate on a desk valet with a reclaimed clock, and we completed 26 trophies for The Good Neighbor Award on Key Biscayne. And to close out our third year journeying around the sun, we completed a few more Lazy Rivers to support the amazing Key Biscayne Community Foundation’s 2022 Aqua Party.

So, what’s in store for Year 4? Well, a lot.

Our new HQ is over triple the size of our previous, and should be fully operational in early June. Our Mobile Laboratory is ready to hit the streets, and we look forward to doing some live recycling demonstrations later this year.

We have also built new machines and techniques for recycling, so Year 4 will also bring new products – jewelry, pendants & key chains, bowls, coasters, games & dice, a few artist collabs, and beams & boards, which will allow us to start building furniture out of ocean plastic without the addition of virgin plastics, like the epoxy found within our River Tables.

Thank you to everyone that has supported us! Thank you to O, Miami and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council for the continued support, as well as Key Biscayne Community Foundation; Key Biscayne Citizen Scientist Project; PHYTO Paris; The Children’s Trust; ICU baby; Awesome Foundation; Sun of a Beach Cleanup; Pirani Life; and to all of our supporters from this year’s amazing Give Miami Day!

We are a member of the 1% for the Planet network, and we adore our 1% supporters. If you would like to support us, here is a link to donate via PayPal, or you can join 1% for the Planet to see thousands of organizations that are helping the planet.