Ashurst said the company regrind waste plastic where possible to be reused within their products, and is making further investments to become a entirely self-sufficient business.

Plastic injection mould manufacturer, Coral Products (Mouldings) LTD, is investing in an in-house recycling plant in order to offer housing associations and councils the option to recycle their plastics.

"This approach marries the efficiency of a highly productive, fast-growing, photosynthetic plant (sugarcane) with the efficiency of a highly productive, fast-growing, oil-producing microbe to make a very precise type of oil," said Checkerspot.

"The upshot is a lower land footprint, a far lower water footprint, and a low carbon use relative to other ways of making oil."

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A quarterly newsletter rounding up a selection of recently launched products by designers and studios, published on Dezeen Showroom.

"Access to the Pollinator Kit has provided our team at Waves Not Plastic with bio-based materials that have a beginning of life cycle consistent with our mission to reduce the world's reliance on petrochemicals," said founder Jeff Lenore.

According to the company, the material has a biomaterial content of 56 per cent and can be used in the same moulds used in fossil-based products. The rest of the mixture is made from fossil-derived isocyanate.

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Ashurst concluded: “We are constantly reviewing our products for our recycling and are developing new products with higher use of recycled material.”

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The Pollinator Kit is a direct-to-designer kit that allows producers to experiment with algae-based materials designed to replace traditional polyurethane resin – a fossil fuel-derived product found in many household items.

California materials company Checkerspot has launched a casting kit named Pollinator Kit that allows designers to experiment with making components from algae-based plastics.

Ashurst added that reusing old plastic by recycling it in-house will reduce the total amount of plastic being made, and therefore going into landfill.

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"This strategy pigeonholes renewables, limits the scope of how they can be used and consequently narrows the impact they can have."

He spoke about the importance of recycling wherever the company is able to: “With the impact of waste plastic upon the environment, we are conscious as a plastics company to reduce any impact we may have.”

After mixing the two components users must cast the material within 15 minutes and the tack time is approximately eight hours.

"By 3D printing a mold and then casting it in urethane we can see the part, test its durability and function and make any adjustments in the design before sending a part out for vacuum casting or injection molding," said Pailes-Friedman.

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Checkerspot said that the kits were designed both for designers already using polyurethanes at scale as well as novices who want to begin working with resins.

"Manufacturers of raw materials can often overlook these small but powerful groups, opting instead to bring their materials to market via well-known consumer brands."

The company specialises in providing adaptable products for customers by offering bespoke design and specifications, and sample products that are then put through a complete testing, planning and development process.

The company, which is a leading manufacturer and distributor of plastic injection moulded items, market its products in a diverse range of sectors including, food packaging, household, healthcare, automotive, telecoms and rail.

"Historically, product designers, hobbyists, and artists have been limited by the materials available to them from commodity-based suppliers," said Checkerspot founder Charles Dimmler

Microalgal oil is obtained from large industrial facilities, many of which are located in southern Brazil, where after mass fermentation, algae is mixed with sugars and then water is subtracted to produce the oil.

Before the release of the kits, Checkerspot launched a brand called WNDR Alpine that creates skis from a similar algae-based process.

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Other designers working on testing the material and process include Waves Not Plastic, a non-profit organization in California.

The recycling plant, which will be based in the company’s Haydock site in Merseyside, will see the business utilise waste plastic from the surrounding areas to produce their products.

It can be used for making small and medium-sized products from jewellery and phone cases to surfboards and furniture and includes resin, a mixer as well as a choice of pigment, which is also made from algae.

Using biotechnology, Checkerspot has been able to create a production method that harvests the oil from algae to create "renewable building blocks" for use in product design.

Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, founder of Interwoven Design Group, told Dezeen that her studio has experimented with using the product for prototypes.

Other novel uses for algae include the limestone composites created from the material by researchers at the University of Colorado.

The Manufacturer spoke to Coral Products (Mouldings) LTD, managing director, Neil Ashurst about the plans, he said: “The recycling plant will mean that we are able to offer councils, housing associations and other companies the option of recycling their waste plastic or old containers, and we can then use this new recycled material to create other products.”

Our most popular newsletter, formerly known as Dezeen Weekly, is sent every Tuesday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Plus occasional updates on Dezeen’s services and breaking news.

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