Rise of the plastic Artisans

Many thanks to the National Festival of Making for featuring us in Season 4 of Art in Manufacturing when we were still Precious Plastic Lancaster. The film was beautifully captured by Sodium Films.

Filmed back in December 2020, we didn’t realise what opportunities it would lead to - Including our Foundry in Lancaster!

 

Meet the Team

  • Martin

    Director

    Martin set up Precious Plastic Lancaster (now Relic Plastic) back in 2019 and has enjoyed it ever since. He brings new products to life with his design skills, has an eye for making processes efficient and ensures everyone else in the workplace is happy.
    You'll normally catch Martin looking out the window trying to work out whether running, climbing or cycling might be best suited for the changing weather.

  • Alex

    Workshop Manager

    Alex is in charge of making sure the foundry is running smoothly, machines are behaving and products are meeting high quality standards before heading out to customers. His breadth of industries, disciplines and experience of tools enables him to turn his hand to most jobs that are thrown at us.
    Out of the foundry, Alex likes to spend time with his family, play golf, fly drones and other nerdy things.

  • Peri

    Education & Outreach Officer

    Peri is out and about at schools, events and festivals showcasing the recycling process and exploring the bigger picture beyond waste and recycling. Her friendly nature, energy and environmental knowledge means everyone in our workshops go away with a smiling face and a new piece of information.
    Peri's also an incredible artist specialising in Eryri landscapes and seascapes. You can usually find her out and about in the mountains when she's not totally renovating a house!

  • Liam

    Workshop Team

    Liam first joined Relic when they moved and turned his hand quickly to the injection moulding process. His sharp eye and care for the product's journey translates to high quality products and in-house developments.
    Liam’s ability to juggle an infinite amount of hobbies is quite astounding and it’s always interesting to know what he’ll be up to at the end of the day or over the weekend.

  • Tom

    Workshop Team

    Tom enjoys the flexibility Relic offers that works well for his climbing career - he will happily craft a number of products in the morning with dead focus and then climb something ridiculous in the afternoon. He brings good energy and thoughtful puzzles to the team during the day and his strong arms are utilised when there's a stuck bolt somewhere in the Foundry.

WHERE DO WE SOURCE OUR PLASTIC?

We partner with individuals, groups, organisations, and businesses to recycle plastic into higher-value items and develop circular economies. An emphasis on designing for circularity is at the forefront of what we do.

Relic currently uses Polypropylene [PP 5], Low Density Polyethylene [LDPE 4], and High Density Polyethylene [HDPE 2] in all manufactured products. We separate all our plastics by colour and type.

  • Household & Community Collected

    Items you might find in your home that don’t have much value in the kerbside recycling system could be destined for our Foundry where we can turn them into new, beautiful products!

    In Lancsater we worked with individuals and groups like Carnforth Wombles, Bay Area Recycling, Eggcup, local churches and food banks, and Green Lancaster as part of The Plastic Bottle Top Project collecting items such as bottle caps, sweet tubs, DVD cases and mushroom tubs.

    Unfortunately, at present in Wales, we have no local collection system as we are still working through our current plastic supply. Watch this space!

  • Business Donations

    Do you have clean manufacturing plastic waste that could be used in our products? Contact us to set up a partnership. We’ve worked with businesses across various industries to either reduce their recycling costs or take plastic that they want to see created into something new. Send us an email if you’d like to work together.

We began as Precious Plastic Lancaster  in 2018

We began
as Precious Plastic Lancaster
in 2018

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Verified workspace

We are a Precious Plastic verified workspace.

Precious Plastic is a project that teaches you how to start a business from plastic waste. It sees people as the key element to fix the plastic mess and bring about necessary change. Small steps, multiplied by millions. You can join or create a recycling space, use open source machines and tools, and become a part of the global community.

Learn more at www.PreciousPlastic.com