Some of these groups are literally at the thinking stage, but others are already at an advanced stage and have become established in a very short period of time.”

"By bringing Precious Plastic and Sodium Films together for this short film, there’s continuity, but also a palpable sense of the new as the remarkable story is told with such creative care.”

The film premiered on Global Recycling Day 2021, at a time when Precious Plastic teams in the UK has increased by 71 per cent since Covid-19 put the UK into lockdown in March 2020.

Empowered by open-source machinery designs and blueprints for everything from recycling collection points and designs for production workshops, instigated by the global community's spiritual home and original Precious Plastic in Eindhoven, Holland, individuals and groups have been able to set up shop as low-volume, specialist plastic recyclers and, in some cases, such as Precious Plastic Lancaster, establish production lines for commercially viable products.

"The group works to free the real potential in something so undervalued, by isolating and mixing colours to remarkable, conversation-starting effect.

The team has been able to "revalue" the plastic they receive, turning usually single use products into desirable, ‘forever’ homewares.

Plastics injection molder Atalys LLC announced yesterday that it has acquired Schnipke Engraving Co. LLC. Both companies provide injection molding and related services to medical device OEMs. Atalys, based in Rochester, NY, said the acquisition will enhance its manufacturing capabilities, technology, and geographical footprint.

The UK’s flagship project, Precious Plastic Lancaster, has been profiled in the film, commissioned by The National Festival of Making as part of its Art In Manufacturing series, capturing a moment in time for the short history of plastic use and the possible first steps towards the hand-powered rehabilitation of plastic’s reputation.

Filmed in a typical workshop environment, giving a hint into the user-friendly, open-source processes that lie at the heart of the global movement’s ethos, the video offers a hint of the potential as the community continues to grow, with more than 500 Precious Plastic groups now pinned to the worldwide map.

In 2020, the Lancaster team’s efforts, using similar machines to those that can be bought for just over £2,000 each, led to an 800 per cent increase in turnover with lockdown orders pouring in for their own brand, Relic.

Sodium Films have previously worked with Adidas to profile the launch and development of their aspirational recycling project, Futurecraft.Loop, aiming to integrate cyclical, reduced-waste manufacturing processes into global sportswear production.

"We can’t keep soap dishes on the shelves, likewise plant pots, so even at that transactional level, the project has turned something nobody wants into something everyone seems to want and pay £10 for the pleasure of owning it.”

"Attention turned to virtual experiences and we wanted to continue to not only promote the inspirational work of innovative manufacturers, but maintain links between the creative and other industries.

Kiki Callihan, the fourth driving force in Precious Plastic Lancaster’s rapid development, is also poignantly captured by video producer, Phil Barber of Sodium Films in the video portrait of the Community Interest Company.

Timo Makower is the first full-time employee of Precious Plastic Lancaster, working on manual machinery to turn recycled plastics into products including £10 plant pots and soap dishes, all selling out quickly after going on the project’s online store.

Founded in 1967, Schnipke has established a reputation for building tools in-house and designing and engineering molds that meet the medical device industry's stringent requirements for precision at extremely tight tolerances, said the news release. The company claims on its website that it can mold within tolerances of +/-0.001 inches and as small as 0.02 grams in weight. Even smaller dimensions can be accommodated upon customer request.

"Our acquisition of Schnipke was driven by a focused strategy to deepen our capabilities, capacity, and technical superiority across the entire manufacturing process for medical device components,” said Vinc Ellerbrock, president and CEO of Atalys. “The addition of Schnipke adds two manufacturing sites for scalable growth, broadens our geographic presence and reach, enables us to serve a wider array of customers, and significantly augments our technical capabilities,” said Ellerbrock.

Making continues to develop its impact and scale through its registered Community Interest Company that works year-round to strategically support a stronger, more diverse and sustainable cultural sector in Lancashire.

Celebrating making and manufacturing, from the kitchen table to the factory floor, the award- winning festival has welcomed tens of thousands of people every year, encouraging visitors of all ages and backgrounds to explore their own creative making potential.

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

Through bold commissioning, and with funding from organisations such as Arts Council England, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, the CIC aims to present outstanding outcomes and experiences as part of both the festival weekend and a longer-term cultural programme for national visitors and regional communities - supporting economic development and creating a distinctive sense of place.

On taking up the project with Precious Plastic Lancaster, Barber sensed the same ethos existed between Precious Plastic and Adidas, although at wildly different scales, saying: “We get involved in projects like this, because we believe in them. Having seen first-hand the challenges that Adidas are working to meet, trying to achieve mass production without use of virgin plastics, our first conversations made it clear that Precious Plastic Lancaster were talking about the same things.

This film demonstrates the link between the festival, it’s place amongst innovative manufacturing businesses and connecting creative storytellers with UK industry.

The nature of the movement as a community means that emerging teams are quickly effective as small businesses, taking advantage of other teams producing shredded plastic ready for

Callihan’s interview uncovers shocking statistics (“Just 9% of the plastic ever made has been recycled”) as well as messages of hope as the true potential of plastic as a craft material is revealed.

Nathan Burley, part of a team of four including fellow founder, Martin Paley, says that Precious Plastic’s mission is given away in its name: “When something is ascribed no intrinsic value, such as modern plastics, then that is problematic.

Established in 2017, The National Festival of Making’s Art In Manufacturing series has commissioned artists to engage manufacturers and their workforces in the creative process and

In February, Atalys announced that it is tripling the size of its existing facility in the Dominican Republic from 15,000 to 47,000 square feet through the addition of a new 32,000-square-foot building. The company said that the new building will be dedicated to manual assembly with complementary injection molding, pad printing, tool repair, and warehousing. The existing facility will become the company's primary plastics processing site focused on cleanroom injection molding as well as secondary operations such as testing and packaging.

Editor in chief of PlasticsToday since 2015, Norbert Sparrow has more than 30 years of editorial experience in business-to-business media. He studied journalism at the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes du Journalisme in Strasbourg, France, where he earned a master's degree.

The Precious Plastic community has seen more than a 70 per cent increase in UK recycling teams in a year, expanding the potential for low-volume, high-value, ‘craft’ plastic re-purposing.

Burley continues: “With the increase in the number of UK teams appearing on the Precious Plastic map, we can see that things are moving at a renewed pace to affect change and take advantage of the huge plastic problem we have.

In July 2020, the Precious Plastic team in Lancaster produced a 100 per cent recycled 'no touch tool' to help people stay safe in a Covid world.

In addition to its headquarters in Rochester, Atalys has manufacturing facilities in Asheboro, NC, and the Dominican Republic. The New York and North Carolina plants have multiple Class 8 cleanrooms for molding and assembly on site; the Santo Domingo site in the Dominican Republic offers cleanroom assembly and automation. The company said it adheres to scientific molding principles and is equipped with presses ranging in size from “near micro molding” to 1,400 tons.

The Festival of Making was co-founded by designer Wayne Hemmingway, originally from Morecambe, who also hosts the annual Vintage Festival in the town.

"What we’ve observed is struggle, the things that go wrong and the failures in meeting the challenge of using fewer raw materials and reducing waste, but the film project with Precious

Lauren Zawadzki, Director of The National Festival Of Making, says: “Covid-19 and the UK’s lockdown meant there couldn’t be a physical festival last year and artists couldn’t be embedded with manufacturers to create new work as they would normally be.

Directed by Lauren Zawadzki and Elena Jackson at acclaimed culture company, Deco Publique, and co-founded by leading British designer, Wayne Hemingway MBE, The Festival of

Schnipke has tooling and plastic injection molding operations at its headquarters in Ottoville, OH, and operates a second manufacturing facility in Tucson, AZ. The company is FDA registered and is certified to ISO 13485:2016.

Earlier this week, another medical injection molder made news when Total Molding Services announced that it has been acquired by Haartz Family Holdings, changing its name to Moldgenix in the process.