Recycling your thingies with KNAG

Eve Jeffery

The Lismore Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG) are on a mission to recycle every bit of tiny plastic they can, to help save the land, air, and water for the kiddies.

The Nannas are supporting two great recycling projects at the moment, one for plastic bottle caps and one for those little tiny bread-bag closure thingies – two items that cannot be put in your council recycling bins.

TerraCycle recycler, and Kwik Lok, who make bread-bag closures, have partnered to create a free recycling program and the Nannas are collecting the tiny thingies.

Bread closures are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remoulded to make new recycled products. As a ‘thanks’ for diverting waste from landfills, for every kilo of closures a $1 donation will be made to Keep Australia Beautiful.

Another group called Envision, amongst a myriad of programs, is currently creating 100 bespoke disability-aid ‘hands’ made with 3D printers, which they donate to children in need. They use plastic caps from bottles, thus also benefiting the environment.

The Envision website says that bottle caps are fully reusable. Unfortunately they can’t being recycled in council bins and they get sent to landfill.

Envision say this overlooked waste product is almost entirely made from HDPE 2 (High Density Poly-Ethylene).

After considerable experimentation they have successfully taken this plastic and extruded it to create functioning filament for 3D printers. Once they have the filament they can 3D print all the components that make up the disability hand.

KNAG don’t want you to put either item in the recycling or the rubbisn bin – they want you to save them up and hand them over to a Nanna.

Knitting Nanna Clare Twomey says the Nannas are excited to be involved in the project.

‘With the current problems Australia is experiencing with recycling, it is great to be able to deal with items that are outside the mainstream in such a positive way,’ she said. ‘You can drop off your items at the Lismore produce markets.

‘We are in Magellen Street every second week. Pop in for a Nanna hug and to drop off your lids and bread-closure thingies. It’s a really feelgood thing to do. We’ll be there next on Thursday August 29.’

You can see what Envision do at: envision.org.au, and find what TerraCycle are up to at www.terracycle.com. You can follow the KNAG Nannas on Facebook.