This article is part of Precious Plastic, a One Army project tackling the plastic waste problem. You can learn more
here.
Today we’re visiting Prag Studio, one of the most exciting Precious Plastic project in Seoul, Korea.
Can you introduce yourself and Prag to the community?
Hi this is Prag Design studio from Seoul, South Korea.
We mainly concerned with producing goods and product design, trying to find out sustainable value within manufacturing processes.
This furniture is composed of abandoned bicycles in Seoul. It was our first work as a design group. After this, we began considering recycling processes.
The furniture is build by trimming, assembling and welding old bike’s frame. This kind of experience made us concerned with recycling.
Then we met Precious Plastic.
When did you start working on Precious Plastic?
We joined precious plastic project last year (2016). One day (maybe 3years ago) we saw the video, the first version. But we could not start yet cause of money issue, so it took another year to start building machines.
How did you start? Self-funded, academic programs, NGO or your own pocket?
The machines were sponsored last year by ‘Seoul Youth Hub’ which is the platform for supporting youth’s lives and activities.
What is your goal working with Precious Plastic?
Our ultimate goal is making interactive-small-mobile-factory (we called this ‘desk factory’).
Oh yhe, seen some pretty amazing pictures of it.
Tell us the story behind it? Why you made it? What you’re using it for?
After building basic machines, we were really glad to start making something. But it wasn’t easy because the collected wasted plastic was often not clean enough for reuse.
In the above picture, you can see plastic recycling centers in Korea. Every plastic is gathered here and mixed together.
In this process dirty plastic waste makes the clean one dirty and very hard to use. Collected plastic waste is classified one by one.
And none recyclable plastic is just buried.
We realized that development of equipment and technology is not the most important thing for recycling plastic.
Therefore, we realized we had to save clean plastic before it gets dirty! It is then that the idea of a small and portable factory came to our mind.
That is how the Desk Factory is developed. The ‘desk factory’ means a small manufacturing system which is about the size of a desk and mobile. Below you can see how the machine look like now.
We want people to think about the plastic waste they generate, and remind them.
People can experience the plastic recycling process through the Desk Factory.
For that to happen, we had to make those machine smaller and movable.
Well done on the “Desk Factory”, looks & feels great. And that is one of the most important aspects of Precious Plastic, turning society’s understanding of recycling upside down from something dirty and diminishing to something cool and trendy. Big up guys, you really nailed it!
Moving on, what products/creations have you managed to make so far with the desk factory?
Nowadays, we focus more on developing desk factory than making products. We developed 2 different types of the Desk Factory.
The first version is a lighting factory and the second is toy factory. Here is the directions.
How are people perceiving Precious Plastic and plastic recycling in general in Seoul?
There are quite a few people that know Precious Plastic and are trying to start, way more than we expected! But some people worry about the hazardous situations. Like fumes, smells and toxics… We are trying to find out more specific evidence that heating the plastic is not harmful within its melting point but it is not that easy to find. We really need help about this issue!
What were the biggest difficulties you’ve encountered working with Precious Plastic?
As we said right before, many people asked working with plastic is harmless. Usually we answer this process is similar with that of 3d print and is already installed ventilation system itself. But still difficult to guarantee the safe.
What’re the biggest successes you’ve achieved so far?
In May, we did workshop for decorating streets using plastic wasted from their town. The major of the town collected the wasted and made flower pot using the desk factory.
Where do you see yourself and Prag in a year time?
This question always hard to answer haha. We would like to share with more people what we do and how we think about recycling.
One last message for the community?
If you come Seoul, feel free to contact us. We really looking forward to meeting various people who join the precious plastic. Let’s hang out!
Thank you guys, it’s great to have people like you in our community, working hard to push Precious Plastic in unpredictable ways we could never have envisioned. This surprises and inspires us to keep working our a***s off 😇.
Make sure to check Prag studios links on the web below and pay them a visit if you’re ever in Seoul!
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