Plastic's Fantastic!: In Defense of the Plastic Take-Out Container

Hey Y'all!

Jackson here.
I did the dishes last night, and when I was done, I saw something that made me stop and think.

Here are the nice, clean dishes:


What gave me pause was the fact that 95 percent of what I washed, let dry and put away, was plastic take-out containers. There they were. I had just spent twenty minutes, plus soap and hot water, essentially washing trash.

Why had I done this? Why waste my time?

Here's why:

Plastic is great. It lasts a really long time. My fiancee and I use those tossable containers all the time.

We use them to store food in. The lids make great little saucers for underneath our plants. Heck, the containers themselves are excellent for growing things in.

I mix paint in them. I use them when I give the dog a bath. Now that I think about it, I use them constantly.

It's all about perception.

Plastic isn't bad. We're just not using it well.

If it isn't going to biodegrade in a thousand years, don't make disposable things out of it. Make the things you want to last for a thousand years.

It says a lot about our society that we make our houses out of wood, and our disposable cutlery out of plastic. One is going to last a lot longer than the other.

I know that plastic can off-gas, but you know what? Off-gassing from my containers is the least of my worries. I think a lot more about the way I treat the people and things around me than I do about phthalate levels. To be honest, I think more about King Kong vs. Godzilla than I do about phthalates.

And you can make plastic out of many other things besides fossil fuels. Corn, soy, hemp, anything that produces either oil or cellulose can be coaxed into becoming plastic.

We just need to shift our perception a bit and all will be well.

Remember: Change is not a hair-shirt exercise. It can be as thrilling and exciting as the best party you've ever attended. And that's the way it should be.

So cherish your plastic containers. Give them the chance and they can serve you well for a long, long, time.

Give plastic a chance.


Love,

Jackson

Plasti-Fab Projects! (slice, loop, & roll)

Hello Hello Hello!

It's been a busy couple days!

Apologies for not posting more strenuously, but I've been calf-deep in new projects and ideas. Like coffee, projects and ideas need time to percolate, (preferably unjostled), and that's what we've been doing: percolating!

So, to recap:

On Friday of last week, I asked my fellow SuperForesters to please bring in all of their unused plastic bags. As I'm sure you can imagine, they were only too happy to comply, and by mid morning I was happily sitting on a couch, converting plastic bags into plastic loops, and plastic loops into plastic yarn.

Here's how:

1.) Get a bunch of plastic bags.
2.) Cut the top handles off, as well as the bottom seal. Then you've got a plastic tube.
3.) Slice the tube into as many 2 inch loops as you can. Each bag will yield approximately 6 loops.
4.) Tie each loop together by simply looping one end through the previous loop and pulling it tight. Now you should have a long line of strung together loops. This is your plastic yarn.
5.) Roll your yarn into a ball.

Still confused? Peruse!


Congratulations! You've got a big ball of plastic yarn! What next?

Make more yarn.

That's what I did for the first part of the day: slice, loop, and roll. I wanted a lot of yarn.

It took some time, as I was still trying to work smoothly and efficiently, and I've never really, er... woven.

Which is what I did next: I wove.

For my first attempt, I took a two foot length of yarn and taped both sides to a cardboard tube. Then I made 32 more 2 foot strips and looped each one around the first length. This sounds confusing... I'll do another drawing. Hold on.

Looky here!:


Here's my first attempt. You can see how I started off weaving pretty loose, but then got tighter and tighter as I went along. I used a big stack of Gristedes and Whole Foods bags. It felt very satisfying.



The main problem I had with the first attempt is that all the Whole Foods bags look identical as they hang down and it was easy to get lost, drop a piece here and there, and generally make a mess of things. No matter, that's what practice is all about.

On to my second attempt:








Here you can see that my technique is improving, still not perfect, but far better than the first. For this piece I laid the top cross piece down on a table and then attached the "hangy bits" laying flat. I also wove while the piece was flat like this, whereas the first one I wove while it was hanging off of the back of a chair.

Weaving is much easier job when things are neat and orderly. What also really helped was that for attempt #2, I used yarn that was multi-colored, which made it easier to keep track of where I was and which piece came next. So multi-colored and textured bag are a big plus here.

This all leads up to a big question: Why?

What could one do with several big chunks of woven plastic fabric?

Oh ho ho! Sooo much!

Firstly, let me extol the amazing physical properties of plasti-fabrics.

1.) Strong as the dickens.
2.) Lasts forever. (Alright, not forever, but for as long as you'll be alive, that's for sure. Plastic is incredibly hardy stuff.)
3.) Looks cool. (Like part of a tribal costume, or samurai armour, or a fishnet. Woven plasti-fabric has an otherworldly quality too it. Like it's so obviously man-made, but machined at the same time. Hard to describe, but believe me when I say it is a joy to look at and feel.)

So, you've got some cool, strong, ultra-long-lasting fabric, that you made with your own two hands out of something that otherwise would've either gone into a trash pile or gone out to sea to choke a dolphin, or whatever.

What to do with it? Another drawing, please!



You can do anything with it!
You're limited solely by your imagination.

Ponchos! Punchin' Bags! Picture frames! Perambulators! Purses! That's just the P's!

And to think, they just give bags away for free! An incredible and long lasting resource, yours for the taking. Just think of the wonderful things you can create!

Enjoy it while it lasts.

So, look around you, see if there's anything you've got a lot of, that otherwise would get trash piled, and see if you can think up something rad to do with it.

If you do think up something rad, tell us about it! Email: superforestnyc@gmail.com


Love to all.

Be excellent to each other.


-Jackson

People I Love: Lot-Ek

Lot-Ek is an architecture and design firm right here in NYC. They specialize in rethinking existing structures and using pre-built objects as source materials.
I can't pronounce their name (Lot-eck? Low-tech?) but I can say I love their stuff!

Like their Recycled Airplane Library, which uses decommissioned fuselages as rooms.




Or their signature line of Container Houses built from retrofitted shipping containers.






And check out some of their amazing objects!

Like the Theater For One, a performance space where one actor performs for one viewer.



Or their Lightscapes



Or the TV Light



For these and other fantastical things, visit: lot-ek.com


Large and small, there seems to be little they cannot do.

If you are thinking of having a house built, or an office, re-done, or you need somehting designed, why not give a shout out to good ol' Lot-Ek, right here in NYC.