El Sereno Community Garden Recycled Plastic Mural Project
On September 17, 2022 we completed the installation of our largest project yet, a recycled plastic mural on a retaining wall made out of over 250 pounds of locally recycled plastic. We introduced it to the community, our family and friends with a Grand Opening Unveiling event on September 17th, 2022. Click here to watch our video of the event. This project was funded by the City of Los Angeles LA-32 Neighborhood Council. This project was completed with a collaborative effort of the 1 Plastic Life team and some local houseless individuals that were part of our job training program. We partnered with 5 local laundromats to collect used detergent bottles to recycle into the mural.
Impact on houseless individuals: For this project, we were able to support one houseless individual to start a drug rehab program at Clínica Romero and we employed 3 houseless individuals for a total of 112 hours.
Impact on houseless individuals: For this project, we were able to support one houseless individual to start a drug rehab program at Clínica Romero and we employed 3 houseless individuals for a total of 112 hours.
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Background: In May 2021, we met Erika Crenshaw, the Garden Manager of the El Sereno Community Garden (ESCG) and shared about 1 Plastic Life’s mission and capabilities. She immediately got excited about the possibility to beautify the garden, make an impact on local plastic pollution and make an impact on the lives of local houseless people. Erika shared with us about opportunities to fund projects through the LA-32 Neighborhood Council. We first attended a Neighborhood Council meeting to meet the council to share about 1 Plastic Life and they were interested in submitting a proposal for a project to be built at the El Sereno Community Garden. This was the first proposal of this type that 1 Plastic Life had created, so we wanted to take our time and put together a great proposal that the Neighborhood Council would be impressed by and would be interested in funding. We continued to work closely with Erika to determine what would be most impactful and feasible with our capabilities. We knew that we wanted to find ways to recycle as much plastic as possible in order to make a meaningful impact on plastic pollution.
The Machine that made this possible: Panel Maker: We had recently been testing a panel maker that was designed and built by Precious Plastic LA and 5 Gyres Institute. It was a fairly easy way to mold large plastic panels, but the panels were a little small, only 6”X36” and the sheets didn’t come out to the quality level that we wanted to create for the ESCG. So, we brainstormed with Richard Wilks, a local artist and machine builder, how to improve the machine and came up with a new design that would make 12”X36” panels and provide much better quality by having a press. Precious Plastic LA and 5 Gyres were excited by the opportunity for 1 Plastic Life to improve the capabilities of their panel maker, so, the first part of our proposal was to improve the capability of the machine.
The Machine that made this possible: Panel Maker: We had recently been testing a panel maker that was designed and built by Precious Plastic LA and 5 Gyres Institute. It was a fairly easy way to mold large plastic panels, but the panels were a little small, only 6”X36” and the sheets didn’t come out to the quality level that we wanted to create for the ESCG. So, we brainstormed with Richard Wilks, a local artist and machine builder, how to improve the machine and came up with a new design that would make 12”X36” panels and provide much better quality by having a press. Precious Plastic LA and 5 Gyres were excited by the opportunity for 1 Plastic Life to improve the capabilities of their panel maker, so, the first part of our proposal was to improve the capability of the machine.
Purpose and intent of grant: The purpose and intent of the grant was to help improve the homeless and plastic pollution problems that are severely affecting our community of El Sereno. 1 Plastic Life planned to improve the community garden by building and installing recycled plastic mural along a staircase path and retaining wall. The intent is that this would be a first project with the ESCG that could lead to future opportunities at the community garden and other neighborhood improvement projects. Our goal is to ultimately create a world where the plastic recycling infrastructure can be easily accessible to anyone and everyone throughout the county of Los Angeles. And, this will create a gateway for opportunities to provide resources to individuals that want to help better their lives.
Steps in building the recycled plastic panels:
1. Recycled Plastic Collection We wanted to find a local source of recycled plastic that would be well suited for this project. We realized that laundromats often have large quantities of detergent bottles from their clients but often the small laundromats do not have the infrastructure to ensure that the detergent bottles get recycled. Detergent bottles are usually made out of HDPE #2 plastic which is one of the best ones for us to mold on our panel maker (HDPE #2, PP #5, and PLA #7 are the plastics that we can mold well with the panel maker). Also, detergent bottles come in many bright colors which we thought would make for an attractive mural.
Steps in building the recycled plastic panels:
1. Recycled Plastic Collection We wanted to find a local source of recycled plastic that would be well suited for this project. We realized that laundromats often have large quantities of detergent bottles from their clients but often the small laundromats do not have the infrastructure to ensure that the detergent bottles get recycled. Detergent bottles are usually made out of HDPE #2 plastic which is one of the best ones for us to mold on our panel maker (HDPE #2, PP #5, and PLA #7 are the plastics that we can mold well with the panel maker). Also, detergent bottles come in many bright colors which we thought would make for an attractive mural.
2. Cleaning & sorting recycled plastic The first step in recycling is cleaning the bottles which includes rinsing off any remaining detergent residue, removing labels, and then sorting the plastic by color and plastic type. To get the most durable recycled plastic panels, we wanted to make sure that the panels were 100% HDPE #2 plastic and not mixed with other contaminants. Using our recycle bus, we brought the recycled plastic to be cleaned and sorted at local homeless encampments to enroll them in our job training program.
3. Shredding recycled plastic The next step in recycling is to shred the cleaned, sorted plastic. Here’s the industrial-grade plastic shredder that we recently purchased to help support the large quantity of shredded plastic that was required for this project.
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4. Molding recycled panels with the panel maker machine The next step was to make the recycled plastic panels using our panel maker machine. We first lay out the plastic to have the colors and pattern that we desired for the mural, then we heated up the plastic to about 350°F to melt it into a nice moldable liquid. Then we installed the top plate to press it into a ~¼” thick sheet with minimal air bubbles and voids. Then, we allowed the plastic to cool and solidify into the sheet. And finally, we removed the panel from the mold.
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5. Finishing the recycled panels The molding process would often leave extra bits of plastic that are called flashing, and we would cut or break these off so that each panel would fit together nicely like a puzzle on the retaining wall. And, we had to trim the panels to nicely fit onto the wall and stairs.
6. Installing the recycled panels Carefully selecting the panels that created the beautiful mural that we envisioned, we screwed the plastic panels to the cinder block retaining wall.
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Finishing Touches: Installing wood on top of wall To give the mural a finished look, we decided to install redwood on the top and seal it. The retaining wall was curved which posed a challenge for installing the wood, so we had to first cut a template and then we figured out how to piece that redwood pieces together to nicely follow the curve of the wall. We finished the redwood with a polyacrylic sealer to ensure that it would last for many years.
Unveiling Celebration Event We were very proud of our completion of this project and scheduled on September 17, 2022 an unveiling celebration to introduce the completed project to the LA-32 Neighborhood Council, the ESCG management, our families, and the local community. Here are a few video highlights and photos from the celebration.
