Nick Gant and Tanya Dean - Flip flops made from beach waste

This project is part of the 'Sole Searching' research project which academics Nick Gant and Tanya Dean use to explore how give waste materials meaning and value. Plastic recovered by volenteers from the beach is made into flip-flops using a heat press as a process of awareness raising and embedding the objects and materials with value and meaning. The products then reward the litter collectors as a memento or seaside souvenir of the occasion and the good work done!

Called 'Flip-Flopsum and Jetsum' they can be made onsite and each pair uses plastics from various different waste plastics.

See above slideshow including

Video of waste carrier bags being woven.

Weaving of the straps of the 'flip-flopsum and jetsum' shoes.

As a means to add value to recycled carrier bags collected from the beach, this video demonstrates how to weave the material as a means to make iot both technically appliable as well as aesthetically appealing.