
Rikki Gilbey, founder of New South Wales, Australia-based Wave After Wave Handplanes, and Mark Yates, founder of Victoria, Australia-based Repeat Plastics Australia (Replas), met at a plastics event in Sydney, where they discussed using plastic sourced from the ocean to manufacture handplanes that would be used by bodysurfers in the ocean.
Gilbey makes handplanes from sustainably sourced timber and other environmentally friendly components and sells them at markets and online. Gilbey says when demand started building for his product, he saw an opportunity to increase his manufacturing capability and help clean up the beaches where his product was being used.
After the two met, they began designing the handplanes made from ocean plastic. Initial designs were based on the current timber models with adjustments made to suit the properties of mixed ocean plastics. The duo made a prototype using an aluminium die bolted to the head of an extruder (intrusion molding).
They contacted Eco Barge Clean Seas, a nonprofit collection partner also based in Australia. Eco Barge uses volunteer labor and donated equipment to clean the beaches of surrounding islands of pollutants. For this project, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) were targeted, sorted, washed, dried and granulated.
To ensure enough plastic was available for the first production run, Gilbey and Yates used one-third ocean plastics and two-thirds postconsumer curbside-collected plastics. As more ocean plastics become available, these ratios will be adjusted, the business partners say.
Gilbey and Yates say the manufacturing of the first batch of 1,000 units went well and a larger run is scheduled.
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