Plastic as a medium of creation
According to the National Plastics Plan 2021 by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, currently, Australia produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, equating to 100 kg per person. Only 13% of plastic is recovered, and 84% is sent to landfill.
When I dig into statistics like these, I often feel so hopeless about our future dealing with the challenges of waste plastic management. And I often forget that there are people within our community tackling this issue in the most creative way possible, like Cesar, the founder of Aoracreo.
Cesar moved to Australia from Colombia in 2004 to study cookery, which might seem to be a bit distant from what he does now, but it all has to do with his artistic sense of being. His artistic interests developed into a side hustle called Aracreo when a friend showed him how to make sewable fabrics from plastic bags in 2011.
As someone passionate about arts his entire life, Caesar saw plastic not only as a resource but as a chance to help the planet while doing something he loves - creating. He took this process to the next level and enrolled in Design studies two years ago to understand what sort of plastic is the best to repurpose into new products.
For over ten years, Cesar has been repurposing soft plastic waste collected from local businesses that deal with packaging in Moreland city, Melbourne, Australia. Most of his packaging materials are made from LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) and HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene), two recyclable kinds of plastic that generally end up in landfills after being used for packaging fish, tea, coffee beans, nuts, and milk. These plastic waste materials are transformed into colourful backpacks, shoulder bags, and wallets in Cesar's hands.
Cesar's interest in exploring alternatives to use plastic as a medium of creation and his aptitude for DIY art led to his involvement with the global collective Precious Plastics, which empowers people through open-source machinery to recycle and repurpose plastic materials.
When Cesar told me about his journey, I was reminded of how marvellous plastic is, and if not all of it, that certain types can be diverted from landfills. One of his main goals is to create awareness about the plastic pollution issue so that we all can do our part to combat it. Thus, as part of his final honours year at RMT, Cesar developed video tutorials that will explain how to use disposed High and Low-density polyethylene plastic bags as a medium for product manufacture.
For more information on upcycling plastic bags into valuable materials or to support Cesar by purchasing one of his creations,! I recommend you check out his website. If you live in Melbourne, you can also find Cesar at the Rose St Artists' Market on the weekends.