We’d like to introduce you to an awesome new upcycled innovation, the Stretcher Print. The Stretcher Print is a photographic wall art made with a soft, felt-like material. Incredibly, this Stretcher material is composed of 100% upcycled plastic bottles! This fantastic innovation is a current Kickstarter project. Read on to find out more.

stretcher print

The Stretcher Print is a UK based product under the Co2nscience brand name. Founder Stuart Jones has been passionate about the environment for some time. He was aware of the fact that plastic bottles can take up to 500 years to decompose. Seeing the negative impact that plastic bottles were having on the environment, Stuart decided to turn them into something beautiful instead. His motto is, “why use a virgin material when you can use an upcycled material instead?”

The process and product

In order to make Stretcher Prints, plastic bottles are chipped down into plastic flakes and then put into a machine where they are turned into the felt-like fabric material. Photos and designs are then printed onto the Stretcher Print material, and cut to size. Because these are not your typical stretched canvas prints, there are several ‘out-of-the-box’ shapes to choose from. The Stretcher Prints have eyelets in the corners which makes them very easy to hang. Co2nscience also works with professional photographers so the choice to go with ready made or custom artwork is available.

stretcher print

As part of their Kickstarter, Stretcher Print are looking to reach their target of reusing 140,000 plastic bottles and turning them into awesome Stretcher Print wall art. This would be around 10,000 medium sized artworks, enough to cover an entire football pitch!

stretcher print

Depending on the size, each Stretcher Print reuses 4 – 22 plastic bottles. The Stretcher Print material, image printing, stitching and cutting are all done in the UK. The fact that the Stretcher Prints are mounted with eyelets means that they can be displayed in a number of spaces and environments and even stretched around corners. They can even be washed and ironed if need be!

stretcher print

We think the Stretcher Print is an incredibly innovative upcycled product. Co2science are even doing tests now with acoustic experts to see if the material could be used to reduce reverberant noise levels in buildings! We think this is one Kickstarter to watch.

Sources:
Stretcher Print on Kickstarter
Co2nscience

2 Thoughts on Stretcher Print

  1. Fantastic Plastic Canvas! One question, how green is the process of breaking down bottles into plastic chips then breaking chips down into plastic flakes and then turning into the felt-like fabric material?

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  2. Yeah, not sure this qualifies as upcycling. It qualifies as very cool, and recycling, but IMHO, not upcycling, as it does not ‘respect it’s current form’.

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