A group of four Sheffield Hallam University students have launched a range of plant pots made from recycled plastics found in the City’s rivers.
Dominic Lewis, Oscar Keenan, Max Sudbury, and Tommy (Tom) Linnett came up with the idea for the business, called Flod, in lockdown.
Their first batch of 20 pots sold out in around 37 minutes. Each pot is sold at £30 with no two being the same.
The business has three primary goals. Their first is to work with local charities which they have started to do already. They have teamed up with the Don Catchment Rivers Trust who have helped to collect the necessary materials.
The group donates 5% of their sales to the charity.
Their second goal is to help clean up green spaces. Dominic Lewis said: “We are trying to become more hands on with local people.
“There is a Facebook group for people who litter pick in Sheffield. We want to create more of a community.”
The third goal was to create an eco-friendly product, which is the plant pot they have designed.
Their products are comprised of two parts. The first is a plastic drip tray made from high-density polyethylene found in bottle caps and milk cartons collected from the river.
The second part is the pot itself; made from a unique mixture of jesmonite and glass. Jesmonite is a water-based concrete alternative that contains no volatile organic compounds and is completely eco-friendly.
In every pot there is 520g of recycled material and the rest is then made from jesmonite.
"We want to create more of a community"
Due to lockdown restrictions, they had to use a panini press and a blender to work with the plastics.
Now with access to the university’s workshops, they have been able to create moulds to help them work with their materials.
Dominic Lewis and Oscar Keenan said: “Out of all the equipment we have been able to use, the one piece of equipment we still use is the panini press.
“There is something about the panini press, we can’t get rid of it.”
Follow Flod_UK on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to keep up to date with their progress.
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