FROM PLASTIC BAG TO SUSTAINABLE MARBLE
ALL OUR HOMEWARE & FURNITURE IS HANDMADE FROM 100% RECYCLED LDPE
OUR JOURNEY
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Louise started experimenting with waste plastic in 2012 whilst at Brighton University, and started her studio in 2015, a year after graduating. She then spent two and a half years refining the processes and working on commissions, culminating in designing and building a large hydraulic press capable of producing sheets of recycled plastic for larger applications of the material.
Merl joined in 2017 after a huge tabletop project was undertaken, and with her also having an artistic background, as well as having worked in interiors, it couldn’t have been a better pairing. In early 2018 we formed Weez & Merl.
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"Everything we have learnt over the years has been through trial and error - there’s BEEN NO rulebook to follow with what we do, and we are still learning and improving with every week that goes by."
A PLASTIC PROBLEM
Due to its usefulness across many industries worldwide, millions of tonnes of virgin LDPE are produced each year, and global demand for it is expected to keep growing into the 2030s.
Unfortunately most applications of plastics are for single use, or regarded as disposable, so we want to challenge throwaway culture by showing how beautiful plastic can be.
Although LDPE is encouraged to be recycled on the label, it is often difficult to find facilities that do. In the UK, huge amounts are shipped abroad to be recycled, which is an inefficient and unsustainable practice. Our business is intercepting and utilising this undervalued material and championing local recycling.​
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SUSTAINABILITY
​​​We are a company designed around the circular economy concept, and we offer restoration and reparation schemes for all of our products, to support this vision of a future without waste.
We can create truly sustainable products by making the most of LDPE's ability to be endlessly remelted and repurposed.
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Our ultimate goal is for plastic to be regarded as a precious material, and not one worthy of ending up in landfills, incinerators and oceans.
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COLLECTIng & CLEANING
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We collect the waste LDPE plastic from various local shops and businesses; the stock they order from their suppliers arrives to them individually wrapped in this single-use packaging. It’s mind boggling how much plastic waste is produced in this way.
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We ‘clean’ the plastic by removing any contaminants, such as paper labels, sticky tape and sealing strips. This is a long and fiddly, but very therapeutic process
MELTING & KNEADING
The plastic melts in bundles (we call them ‘pillows’) in our ovens at around 150°C, before being kneaded by hand using heat resistant gloves. Kneading the plastic removes a lot of the air that was trapped during the melting process - as the plastic stretches, the air pockets expand and burst.
We then cut the plastic into 1kg portions before pressing into sheets in a hydraulic press.
The stacked sheets of plastic become our ‘stock’ material, which we can then pull off the shelf ready for the next stages of our process: colour mixing, degassing, layering, marbling and eventually pressing.
COLOURING & DEGASSING
The majority of the plastic we recycle comes to us either completely clear, or with a small amount of black or white writing. This acts as a perfect base for us to mix in colour to create translucent hues.
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The colour mostly comes from other waste plastic (e.g. orange from Sainsbury's carrier bags), usually added at less that 0.5% of the total volume. Colours can be mixed like paints - we have a whole book of recipes for our colourways!​
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The roll mills we use for colour-mixing are specifically designed for plastic; the barrels can be heated to a set temperature to keep it melted. After the colour has been added, it is passed through the barrels, rolled up, and passed through again several times. The result is a smooth consistent colour.​
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The plastic at this stage is riddled with air pockets, and so to expel the majority of these we portion the plastic into 250g, and press it into thin sheets. The remainder of the air pockets burst when the sheets are remelted in the next stage.
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