Nothing ever disappears, it just transforms

The days of covering your floors with carpet are coming to an end. More and more people are pulling them out of their homes, but where do you go with it? Which container should you throw it in? The fact is that carpets are difficult to recycle due to the combination of materials it is made from. Therefore they end up going to waste at the landfill and taking up a lot of space with their bulky appearance.
Jenny and Rich Mclver who run Wish Bone Design in Wellington, New Zealand, considered this problem and came up with a solution that included technology to turn carpets into strong tubular shapes that can be used to make children’s bicycles! The transformation included a number of steps; the nylon carpet fibers are shaved from the backing, then the nylon fiber is separated from the polypropylene backing and recycled via a proprietary process which shreds, cleans and heats the raw material into liquid form. Afterwards, glass fiber is added for strength and rigidity and the result is engineered resin pellets which are injected into strong organic molded forms with a tubular shape.
This is the first bike ever to be made using gas-assisted injection molding, which allows creating complex, single-piece tubular with very high strength and rigidity. Not only is the bike made from recycled material that otherwise would have been burnt for no use,  it is also expandable so it can grow with the child and that way stay out of the landfill even longer, or hopefully forever if the bike is passed down to someone else.
Jenny Mclver believes the technology will be used for many other purposes in the future. They are currently also designing a larger recycled bike suitable for grownups and says “cycling is the lifestyle choice for the future, it is a real joy creating truly innovative design for such a passionate growing community”
At SD Trading we encourage any initiative that enables human kind to recycle and take care of our waste in the most sustainable ways possible. Our contribution a greener world is bringing beautiful sustainable disposables as an alternative to regular (disposable) tableware.