This story was told in a story circle at the Learning History workshop in February 2008.
A practical, recycled pencil case is wearing well and reminds its owner daily of how well recycled products can be innovative, useful and practical.
Retyred – The story of my pencil case
A story told in the “Down with Carbon” story circle
As part of my job for the last two years, I have attended the Chartered Institute of Waste Management’s annual beanfeast in Torbay. It is a week-long mixture of conference and exhibition. And those of you who like spotting innovations in bin lorries would love it! And it is right by the sea, so that is fantastic itself. For the last two years, myself and partners have had a stand and I have been so lucky because my stand – I could look through the door and I could see the sea from my exhibition stand…...
But within my tent - the marquee that I was in was basically a public sector marquee - was the department of environment for Northern Ireland. Now maybe you know that Local Government is constituted slightly differently in Northern Ireland. So this is effectively central government function in Northern Ireland. But as part of their stand, they were organizing waste partnerships, but they had some marketing things which I thought were very innovative.
And the thing that I took away was this sort of zipper pencil case that is made out of reused car tyres, and I use this all the time, it is in my case and I brought it with me now and in it, I have my headphones for my laptop which I copied over my CD’s onto. And so, when I am on the train, I spend a lot of time on trains I can listen to the music. I also have all the leads and connections that I need for my laptop and various other things in this zipper case. But I have had it already for two years and it is showing no signs of wear and tear, that it is itself for a recycled product which I think is absolutely fantastic.
I have not pursued whether the zip is made out of recycled steel. It did not occur to me perhaps I will check on it. I bet Wastewatch does not have any giveaways like that! What pleases me about this is the fact that it is really useful product and it is made from recycled material. I am amazed what these days is made from recycled materials: pens and rulers from machine vending cups, I think the range of product that you can get available is quite substantial. I am so compelled that I am going to get it out at the end of this and show it to you. That is the range of recycled rubber products that I have in my possession!
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