A British designer has launched a company named as Gumdrop which is responsible for recycling this synthetic rubber and give it another life in the form of shoe soles, water shoes, key rings, pens, rulers and even picks for playing the guitar .
Anna Bullus(London, 1984) is the young creative designer of this great and sustainable idea that can help governments save many millions in cleaning; Without going any further, the United Kingdom spends around 57 million euros a year to eliminate street chewing gum.
Bullus , who teaches recycling schoolchildren at the London Design Museum, analyzed the chemistry of chewing gum, which contains a synthetic rubber, which is a very versatile material. Its main ingredient is a type of polymer similar to plastic. "It's called polyisobutylene ", explained the designer "the same material found in the air chambers of bicycle wheels".
"It's an incredibly useful material that ultimately ends up in our streets, but we could do something better with it." That was the starting point for Gumdrop to start walking, back in 2009.
Containers to collect chewing gum
In her mission to collect this used material, Anna has created container in the form of a pink ball so that people deposit chewing gum on them (of course, they are also made of the same material with recycled chewing gum). At the moment, there are 600 placed between stations and universities of the United Kingdom (the University of Winchester , to the south of the country, was one of the first places in placing them, also there in the airport of Heathrow , and in the platforms of railroads of the Great Western Railway). The containers come with signs that explain to the users that their contributions will serve to create new objects.
For example, with 42 pieces of chewing gums you can create a cup of coffee . In the process not only chewing gums are used, they are also grill and mixed with other recycled plastic polymers: in the end a new material is obtained which they have called Gum-tec .The proportion varies depending on the type of object, but at least it takes 20% of chewing gum says Bullus . The mixture is heated to a high temperature and then deposited in a mold, when it is cooled, it becomes a pair of water boots, bolis or a pink sole of a gentleman's shoe.
Images of Gum-Tech Products:
- Gum-Tech Rulers:
- Gum-Tech Guitar Pricks
- Gum-Tech Pencils
Image Credit