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Who are we?1 plastic life is a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) focused on reducing plastic pollution in low-income communities while helping better the lives of local homeless populations.
We locally recycle plastic from collections and sorting of waste to creations of new, useful and durable products with our DIY plastic recycling machines. We work to support homeless individuals by providing job training and resources to secure housing and jobs, or needed assistance. We are a Certified Community Service Recycling Program with CalRecycle which means organizations can donate their CRV recyclables to us and we will process them to get recycled at local recycling facilities. We also accept any clean, sorted HDPE #2 and PP #5 that we recycle with our own machines. We are a community of plastic warriors who believe that global plastic pollution problems are solve-able. We believe it takes rolling up our sleeves and understanding the root causes of the issues and fighting on the front lines to tackle those issues. We have seen that low-income communities don’t often have sufficient resources to keep streets waste-free and particularly plastic-free. We saw this problem as an opportunity to change the way and engage the local homeless populations to help us tackle the issue through our training programs. |
Our Key Initiatives
From our years of trying to help fight the homeless problems in low-income communities, we have learned that it is no easy task. We have learned that in order to help them, we must understand them. We have found that plastic recycling is a great way to engage local homeless. As we need help with sorting, cleaning, and shredding plastic, these are things that most homeless people are more than capable of doing. Engaging directly with individuals helps us to understand the needs they have and to help figure out ways that we can help them to better their lives. We have built a network of partner organizations who we provide referrals to that are interested in supporting our homeless job trainees. Our partner organizations provide services for some of the most common problems that individuals face such as drug abuse, mental health, transitional housing and job placement. We strive to track our impact and one way we are measuring this is by collecting data on what number of people we are referring to our partner organizations. We are continually working on expanding our network of resources as we aim to cater to each person’s liking to maximize their success.
This graph shows the quantities of individuals that we have referred to partner organizations since we started these programs in 2019
Our biggest success is when we can help a homeless person get off the street by securing both a job and permanent housing. So far, one participant of our job training program has successfully gotten off the streets and is no longer homeless. And we plan to impact at least 100s of others over the next 5-10 years.
Our biggest success is when we can help a homeless person get off the street by securing both a job and permanent housing. So far, one participant of our job training program has successfully gotten off the streets and is no longer homeless. And we plan to impact at least 100s of others over the next 5-10 years.
Plastic pollution is one of the major global environmental issues of our time and is particularly impactful on low-income communities. We help to solve these problems through local recycling that includes no-only collecting the plastic waste, but actually locally sorting, cleaning, and shredding the plastic and molding the plastic into new, useful and durable objects. We have molded a wide variety of objects from face shields to phone cases to decorative panels to clocks and even beer tap handles. See some examples of our recycled plastic creations on our projects page. We started with building machines from global, open-source recycling project called Precious Plastic. And, now we are starting to build some of our own machines based on the learnings from this community and purchasing used, industrial-grade recycling equipment.
We are a certified CalRecycle Community recycler which means organizations can donate their CRV recyclables to us and we will process them to get recycled at local recycling facilities.
We also have a number of collection programs including that we have public drop bins available at the following locations:
We are a certified CalRecycle Community recycler which means organizations can donate their CRV recyclables to us and we will process them to get recycled at local recycling facilities.
We also have a number of collection programs including that we have public drop bins available at the following locations:
- Location 1: 4300 Stillwell ave Los Angeles CA 90032
- Location 2: 1039 N Mission rd Los Ángeles CA 90033
Plastic pollution is one of the major global environmental issues of our time and is particularly impactful on low-income communities. We help to solve these problems through local recycling that includes no-only collecting the plastic waste, but actually locally sorting, cleaning, and shredding the plastic and molding the plastic into new, useful and durable objects. We have molded a wide variety of objects from face shields to phone cases to decorative panels to clocks and even beer tap handles. See some examples of our recycled plastic creations on our projects page. We started with building machines from global, open-source recycling project called Precious Plastic. And, now we are starting to build some of our own machines based on the learnings from this community and purchasing used, industrial-grade recycling equipment.
We believe that collecting and recycling helps solve the plastic pollution problem but feel that investing in educating youth about plastic usage, consumption, and about the impact it is having on the world helps to grow our impact exponentially. We strive to create a more sustainable world by giving the youth, our future leaders, the tools and resources to make a lasting impact in creating real, sustainable solutions to plastic pollution problems. Therefore we allocate time to running educational programs for kids.
We support Youth Education about Plastic Pollution with programs such as:
Contact us if you are interested in us helping set-up Educational Programs at your school or in your community
We support Youth Education about Plastic Pollution with programs such as:
- Coordinating school recycling collections
- Creating educational workshops about how to properly recycle and how to live a sustainable lifestyle
- Supporting youth entrepreneurs in creating and selling recycled plastic products to help solve global plastic pollution and fundraise to support causes that make an impact
- Mentorship on how to make an impact on the plastic pollution problem and homelessness
Contact us if you are interested in us helping set-up Educational Programs at your school or in your community
This Microplastic Team is a Valley Academy of Art & Design Signature Project Dedicated to the depletion of micro plastic in our environment
Shown in this photo is the Gia Phone Case Team, is a youth-based initiative targeting critical issues in society to enact real change and other education projects
What’s the meaning of 1plasticlife?
We believe that one piece of plastic can impact one person’s life and starting with that, it is our mission to impact as many people’s lives as possible. How does one piece of plastic impact someone's life? When somebody learns about plastic pollution problems and how they can be solved with changing habits and reducing, reusing, recycling, that is how we start to make an impact. But, we go one step further and outreach to those most in need and get them to help us with recycling as the means to build a relationship with them to help us provide the best support services to help them better their lives.
History of 1plasticlife
1plasticlife was founded in El Sereno, CA in 2018 by Armando Ochoa to raise awareness and fight against the catastrophic plastic pollution waste in our cities and oceans. Armando discovered the plastic pollution problems when he formerly worked in construction and saw all the plastic waste that was created from the construction industry alone. Armando had always wanted to buy a beautiful aquarium fish tank and once he saved up enough from working his construction jobs, and after purchasing the fish tank, he realized that he had to start taking action as he started researching fish and our oceans. Armando discovered how at risk our oceans are because of the enormous amount of plastic pollution pouring into our oceans every day. Our founder Armando describes it as, “Here I am loving my fish tank but at the same time I’m poisoning our planet through my job where we were creating so much plastic waste and that is when I realized that we must do something about it”. Armando wanted to have a dual mission to solve plastic pollution problems and solving homelessness because many of his friends that he grew up with were looking for stable employment and some were falling into homelessness for a number of reasons. And, Armando wanted to help them out while saving our planet from pollution.
Our commitment is to helping establish positive economic incentives for our local homeless and unsheltered individuals who we work with and provide jobs for. 1plasticlife is the world’s first leading environmental organization in Los Angeles working in low income communities to collect, wash, shred recycled plastic waste to create new durable products that builds a path of sustainability and human responsibility.
We have big dreams of helping the world and helping people!
Our commitment is to helping establish positive economic incentives for our local homeless and unsheltered individuals who we work with and provide jobs for. 1plasticlife is the world’s first leading environmental organization in Los Angeles working in low income communities to collect, wash, shred recycled plastic waste to create new durable products that builds a path of sustainability and human responsibility.
We have big dreams of helping the world and helping people!
Vision
At 1 Plastic Life, our vision is to have a clean and sustainable planet by creating a world where plastic recycling infrastructure can be easily accessible to anyone and everyone. Focusing on Los Angeles communities, we are creating opportunities to provide life-improving resources to people in need. We are committed to the environment and to helping people that want to better their lives by boosting the economy while creating a more sustainable world.
PROJECTS WE HAVE WORKED ON
A common way that we engage with local organizations is to make recycled plastic objects that they are in need of. Some examples of projects that we completed are detailed below. If you are interested to discuss with the 1plasticlife team about creating recycled plastic products for you, please contact us (insert link to contact page or custom contact page for projects, but do not use current request quote link which should be taken down)
El Sereno Community Garden
We met the head of our local community garden who identified a need to beautify the garden and thought that the recycled plastic panels that we make could be a great addition as a mural on one of their retaining walls. For this project, we built <# of panels or sqft of panels> out of over 250 pounds of recycled plastic that we installed in the community garden. This project was funded by the Neighborhood Council LA 32 as their first initiative to fight plastic pollution and homelessness.
El Sereno Community Garden
We met the head of our local community garden who identified a need to beautify the garden and thought that the recycled plastic panels that we make could be a great addition as a mural on one of their retaining walls. For this project, we built <# of panels or sqft of panels> out of over 250 pounds of recycled plastic that we installed in the community garden. This project was funded by the Neighborhood Council LA 32 as their first initiative to fight plastic pollution and homelessness.
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Face shields During the COVID-19 pandemic peak, it became critical for front line workers to have the necessary PPE. Face shields are a perfect opportunity for us to make an impact by making these items out of recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic. We iterated through a few different mold designs to come up with one that worked well for local organizations in need. Here’s what the face shields looked like. |
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Phone cases in partnership with Global Initiative Alliance
Global Initiatives Alliance approached us in that they believed in the 1 Plastic Life vision and were concerned with how they could make an impact with reducing plastic pollution. |
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Combs for I Want to Go to paradise
Zero Waste Comb! Made from 10 recycled plastic bottle caps and comes in a 100% biodegradable ziplock bag. |
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Beer tap handles for Surfridge Brewery
Surfridge Brewery is a microbrew based in El Segundo, California and they wanted their business to be as sustainable as possible. Upon learning about 1plasticlife, they became interested to make a statement with their beer tap handles that they are made out of 100% locally recycled plastic. |
ADIDAS PARLEY RUN FOR THE OCEANS LA
We see the possibilities to make what's best for the athlete better for the planet. So we're creating products with recycled materials, making products to be remade and developing products made with nature. We want the world to see the possibilities and take action to help end plastic waste, so we always have places to play
ADIDAS PARLEY RUN FOR THE OCEANS LA
We see the possibilities to make what's best for the athlete better for the planet. So we're creating products with recycled materials, making products to be remade and developing products made with nature. We want the world to see the possibilities and take action to help end plastic waste, so we always have places to play