For Rebecca Conrad, finding a way to turn recycled plastics into new items has spurred a new business during the pandemic.
Conrad said the inspiration for her business really hit during COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.
“I kept seeing all these stories on how nature and Earth was rebounding during that year, and was thinking of ways I could continue that trend with what I do,” Conrad said. “As I’d walk downtown Mount Vernon and Lisbon, I’d be picking up plastic waste that was in the wrong spot and looking at some of the items, realized this could be made into something else.”
With finding discarded fishing lines at Palisades-Kepler State Park, she had the perfect strand to base some jewelry products off of, incorporating different beads.
When she first started, she was learning what she could do with recycled plastics.
“For me, the goal has never been about making money, it’s more about helping people realize the items you can make from items you recycle or repurpose,” Conrad said. “For the first few pieces I made, I was just giving them away to family and friends.”
After attending a garage sale with some of her wares, Conrad realized that there was a market for these recycled items.
While she isn’t sure if she will continue following the business field into her future career, this junior at Mount Vernon High School has loved that the business has offered her the ability to network and speak with other people.
She noted that her studies still take priority during the school year, and she did notice a slow down in production last year with school being back in person learning, but she knows in her free-time she’ll continue spinning plarn into different products.
Among her goals is attending college, possibly in Denmark, and study in a field of environmentalism, but she is still trying to figure out what this will be.
Creating some items, like purses of recycled yarn, can take a bit longer to complete. She has to cut plastic bags into strips and then loop knot those different bags together to form a substance she calls plastic yarn, or plarn.
From there, she’s able to knit these plastic bags with tighter loops into forms including large shopping bags or purses.
“I used a painter’s tarp for one of the purses, and that was a little easier to turn into plarn,” Conrad said. “It’s an item that you couldn’t traditionally send to recycling, but you can still find a use for.”
Some of her biggest challenges have been trying to make plastic materials into other things and not having patterns to begin with. As she’s been continuing this work, however, that has gotten easier.
“One of my other challenges has been advertising my own products,” Conrad said. “I’m a perfectionist and always looking to have the best picture of anything I’m selling up on my website.”
And while she is still cleaning up the streets when she is walking around Mount Vernon, she also has more people willingly donating their old grocery bags and plastic that can’t be traditionally recycled via other means to give her plenty of material for plarn for her use.
“People have donated items like beads and other items for my jewelry,” Conrad said.
Conrad said how long it takes to make a piece depends on the complexity. Her large bags out of recycled plarn takes a month or more. She can knock out a coaster in the span of three hours, and jewelry pieces can take a couple hours. She sets goals for how many projects she wants to accomplish on a small scale and a longer timetable.
“Any of the bigger pieces can take a long time to complete,” Conrad said. “One of the pieces that I’ve worked on for more than a year was a table runner which used the smallest knitting needles.
A lot of the bags she sees are Wal-Mart bags and Gary’s Foods bags, so the color of a lot of her projects are based on those particular colors.
“I am working on a rainbow item that is using a lot of recycled colors of plastic, but that takes longer to do,” Conrad said.
She notes that there are things we as citizens can all do to make the world a better place. As you’re walking in the community, pick up any microplastics or items you find and get them to a proper recycling area.
“There are so many things that just need to find their way to proper recycling centers,” Conrad said. “Anything but styrofoam and some fabrics can’t be recycled as they’re household waste.”
For people interested in Conrad’s products, check out her store at www.revamped.store. You can also reach Conrad via email for requests for specific products at [email protected].
Revamped – Helping recycled products find a new life
August 26, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.