Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Plastic

Eco-friendly clothing industry in fashion paves a way into an alternative future for the apparel industry. For a start, let's learn how to #make bio-polymers which can be incorporated as a decor with base materials like silk and cotton which are used to make eco-friendly clothes.

Everyone has slurped water or sipped water, isn't it? But has anyone ate water? Even if yes, ever wondered how do you make edible water balls? Learn how to create an alternative to plastic bottles and synthetic fashion wear!

Step 1: Tools & Materials

* Calcium Lactate (Bio-Polymer)

* Sodium Alginate or any other Bio-Polymer like Iota Carrageenan / Kappa Carrageenan / Locust Bean Gum

* Syringe / injection (optional) - Available in medical shops for approx INR 10 or 0.14 USD

* Metal plate / plastic plate (optional) - Readily available at home

* Spoon - Readily available at home

* Paper Cups - Readily available at home or stationary shops

* Measuring Cylinder - Available in medical shops or general stores

* Weighing Machine

Buying a weighing machine is not required. One can weigh the bio-polymers in a cup at nearest Jewellery / food shops / college laboratory where weighing machine is available.

In this instructables, Sodium Alginate is used. Instead of this any other bio-polymer can also be used as mentioned in materials list above.

Step 2: Measurement of Bio-Polymer

1. Measure 1g of any bio-polymer powder (i.e. Sodium Alginate) on weighing machine using paper cup.

2. Repeat the procedure of weighing 2g of Calcium Lactate in other paper cup.

3. Pour 100 mL water using measuring cylinder in 1g Sodium Alginate powder.

4. Pour 100 mL water using measuring cylinder in 2g Calcium Lactate powder.

Goal is to prepare 1% and 2% solutions of Sodium Alginate & Calcium Lactate respectively.

Step 3: Freezing & Warming the Solutions

1. Keep Sodium Alginate / any bio-polymer solutions after stirring it well in oven for 60 to 75 seconds and ensure powder is dissolved in water. (Image 1 & Image 2)

2. Keep Calcium Lactate solution after stirring it well in freezer / refrigerator for 4 to 5 minutes and ensure powder is dissolved in water. (Image 3)

Step 4: Designing Different Shapes

1. After removing both the solutions from freezer and oven, keep the solutions separately in a bowl at room temperature for sometime.

2. Using various tools, different shapes can be made. Few of them are:

- Using syringe / injection, pull the Sodium Alginate solution and push it off in Calcium Lactate solution slowly with the designs that one wish to make.

- Using spoon put the Sodium Alginate solution in Calcium Lactate solution and spread it over backside of plate to make a horizontal / flat design.

Step 5: Voila! We Are Done.

The images above shows the various designs created. The spherical balls can be termed as water balls. And yes, everything made is edible!! Food colors can be added to bio-polymers made to make it attractive.

(Last 2 images) : Dry the bio-polymers made in sun for 2-3 days and then can be used as decor materials to embed on fashion wear. That's it!

Applications of Bio-Polymers:

- To make eco-friendly fashion wear as opposed to synthetic clothes.

- To make edible water balls thus reducing usage of plastic bottles.

The fun part about this project is how we can eat water balls, a material that can also be embedded as decor on fashion wear. Being my first instructable, am learning to write it well. If you have suggestions for how to improve an instructable, please post them in the comments.