Wearable Plastic

Cryptic Moth spent Saturday the 19th getting scenic shots of the Santa Monica pier,



Venice beach and the L.A. River.



On Sunday, we headed north to Ventura - world headquarters of Patagonia.



The high-end adventure clothing company has long been a supporter of environmental causes and successfully market materials like organic cotton and hemp. But starting in the 90's, Patagonia introduced synchilla, a fuzzy material made from recycled PET plastic bottles.



Jen showed us the area where they tinker with new materials and designs. She explained how they now have entire lines of clothing made from 100% recycled material. Waste plastic like shower curtains or even chairs are being processed into ski jackets and workout gear.



The clothing is not only recycled but it is recyclable. Patagonia is already taking back old material at their stores, which is then shipped on empty vessels returning to Japan and recycled into new Patagonia products.



Like Interface (see blog entry A Georgia Peach), Patagonia have set a future goal of eliminating virgin raw materials - especially synthetic products like nylon and polyester - from their manufacturing.



After shooting some broll in the retail store and making a few purchases of our own, Cryptic Moth headed north for San Francisco.



We took a small detour to meet Roz, an extreme athlete and budding activist (www.rozsavage.com).



She recently rowed - yes, rowed - across the Atlantic solo. She plans to tackle the Pacific in 2007, a feat that will be sponsored by only eco-friendly companies.



Cryptic Moth conducted a brief interview on her contact with ocean debris in the Atlantic and recycling efforts in her native UK. We took the afternoon to film landmarks around San Fran before settling into a hotel near Haight and Ashbury.



On Wednesday we head inland.



Out.

G+I

Where the Road Meets the Rubber

Cryptic Moth covered some serious ground the past 10 days.



It took us a full day of driving to cross Texas and another day to reach the West Coast. As much as we wanted to visit small pueblos in New Mexico, the Vegas strip and the Grand Canyon, we were on a mission.



We traded the Waffle House for this place – apparently John Madden visited once and they’ve made him their God.



We witnessed amazing thunderstorms and sunsets in the desert across New Mexico and Arizona…



We reached San Diego early Sunday night. Laurie H. from Alphabet Soup fame agreed to put Cryptic Moth up for a few days. To make our entrance all the better, Laurie invited us onboard a friend’s sailboat to watch Damian Marley and Ben Harper from just offshore the San Diego pier. How cool is that?



On Monday, we drove to Baja with Laurie as our tour guide/translator.



She had suggested we spend a day filming some of the agricultural uses of plastic. A lot of fields are covered with plastic sheeting to keep the weed and predators down as well as reflect light and aid in growing. Unfortunately, much of the sheeting gets picked up by the wind, covering the countryside.



While not there during the harvest, we still managed to find impromptu landfills just off the highways and beaches covered with plastic litter.



We spent the next day setting up shoots and regrouping in San Diego (not to mention an episode with Laurie’s plumbing that took up a good part of the afternoon to deal with). Cryptic Moth extends big hugs to our biologist host and her ever-intrepid dog, Abby.



We then drove north to film scenic broll of oil refineries around Long Beach and finally ending up in Riverside on Thursday.



We were visiting U.S. Rubber Recycling, one of the country’s largest recycler of automobile tires. According to Rick, the company’s President, more than 40 million are retired in California every year.



The process starts with shipments of ground up tires from another Californian company (wait for future blog update to see that). They heat up a mixture of the rubber pellets with coloured rubber and glue and pour the mixture into a mold. The mold is then compressed and let to sit.



The process may sound remarkably simple but it took years of trial and error and millions of dollars to perfect as even humidity levels can affect the product’s quality.



U.S. Rubber showed us two molds – one square one about the size of an ottoman and the other as big as a refrigerator. They then slice these massive rubber masses into things like floor mats for gymnasiums or panels for sound-proofing and insulation.



Another customer has been Rubber Sidewalks (rubbersidewalks.com).



Richard V., Senior Public Works Inspector for the City of Santa Monica, had the idea come to him in a dream. As sidewalks fell under his responsibilities, Richard started to notice how tree roots were warping and cracking the concrete sidewalk.



He dreamt of flexible sidewalks that allowed water to penetrate to the soil, the roots to grow freely, and avoid costly maintenance work.



It took a few years to find the right product (and that could stand up to rollerblades and high heels) but Richard’s perseverance inspired Lindsay Smith enough to start Rubbersidewalks, Inc.



The product is now being tested in a host of cities with interest from around the world. Keep in mind this isn’t going to replace concrete. It’s a viable application for old tires and a way to allow green space to remain.



Lindsay’s enthusiasm for the product was infectious. She also deserves a research credit in the film by offering up other contacts in the tire recycling industry.

Stay tuned for that.



Out.

I+G



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