Welcome to
Free Plastic
Plastic is everywhere, and through our natural & organic farming practices, we harvest this powerful manufacturing material. Free Plastic then converts our naturally-sourced plastics into usable objects to cherish through the ages.
Our mission is to reduce the environmental impact of plastic pollution through education, community engagement, and direct action, including environmental cleanups, active recycling programs, public art installations, creative collaborations, and the development of new collecting, sorting, and recycling techniques.
Thank You to Our Sponsors, Supporters, and Friends
Enjoy the Latest from Free Plastic
Plastic Poetry 010 | St. Mary’s Cathedral School
In September 2023, Free Plastic and O, Miami installed their tenth in a series of public art works entitled Plastic Poetry. Plastic Poetry is a series of community activations that mashes up an educational workshop on the realities of recycling … Read More
Plastic Poetry 011.1 & 011.2 | Charles R. Hadley Elementary School
In September 2023, Free Plastic and O, Miami installed their eleventh and twelfth in a series of public art works entitled Plastic Poetry. Plastic Poetry is a series of community activations that blends recycling plastics, plastic pollution, beach cleanups, public … Read More
Plastic Poetry 009 | Belafonte TACOLCY Center
In September 2023, Free Plastic and O, Miami installed their ninth in a series of public art works entitled Plastic Poetry. Plastic Poetry is a series of community activations that mashes up an educational workshop on the realities of recycling … Read More
Free Plastic: Recycling Plastic & Plastic Pollution
Our plastics are farmed from our local environment by our plastic farmer Sun of a Beach Cleanup. Once the plastic is sorted out of the collected pollution, it is delivered to Free Plastic to begin it’s next journey.
We sort the recyclable plastics by type, shred it up by color, give it all a good wash & dry, and then box the plastics until they are ready to be melted down into new objects.
For anything that is too polluted or and specific types of plastics, we do the same sort/shred/clean/box process, but we store these to be used in our epoxy pours.
Why Local, Community-based Recycling?
WLRN tells us that Waste Management contracts with most of the cities of Broward County have provisions that allow the hauler to decide if the recyclables go to their recycling plant or the landfill. Local10 tells us that there aren’t buyers for glass, and that broken glass can contaminate the entire load of recyclables.
Bottom line, many of our recyclables are not being recycled, and some cities in South Florida don’t even “waste” the energy attempting to recycle their waste.
Add to that the troubling volume of plastic pollution being farmed from our beaches everyday, and the only answer left is to take matters into our own hands.
Free Plastic: Looking Forward to Recycling More Plastic Pollution
Free Plastic was launched in early 2019. Since then, we have successfully recycled plastic and plastic pollution into trophies for Key Biscayne’s Key Challenge first place winners; created tiles made of 100% recycled polyethylene & polypropylene; manufactured over a hundred fishy keepsakes from unrecycleable plastics for participants in our World Oceans Day workshop at the Museum of Discovery and Science in downtown Fort Lauderdale and Free Plastic fans; created three epoxy tables using ocean plastics; and created our first piece in an ongoing series of artwork called Plastic Ocean.
The groundwork was laid with our low-budget DIY methods, and then we expanded and upgraded to accept & recycle more plastics. Inspired by the designs by Precious Plastic, we built our first shredder and injection machine. And now, we are working to finish our mobile recycling unit with an extrusion machine, a compression block, and another injection machine. We are looking for a new workspace, and we are looking for local talent to collaborate on projects that pushes how plastic recycling works and the products that can be made from it.
Support Free Plastic by making a donation using the button below. Interested in getting involved? Contact us here.
Support Free Plastic! We are currently working on our mobile recycling unit, and we need your help. Make a donation today and help us farm more plastic from our local environment.