“Tired of gum-plastered streets, Anna Bullus decided to design and install chewing gum receptacles made, naturally, from recycled chewing gum. Her pink “Gumdrops” now appear in five UK locations and Six Flags Theme Park in New Jersey.
Though she won’t reveal the gum rubber’s exact contents, Bullus told The Guardian that eight months in a lab allowed her to perfect her technique, making gum first into a foam and then a used-gum pellet, before extracting a polymer modestly called BRGP (Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer). Perhaps it’s not surprising that you could turn gum into plastic, since the “nonnutritive masticatory substance” that gives gum its chewiness can include butyl rubber, used in inner tubes.
If her Gumdrops can keep gum off the streets, such bins might save British taxpayers an estimated £150 ($300) million per year–that’s what the government spends now on steam hoses, freezing machines, and corrosive chemical street cleanings. Plus Bullus says the Gumdrops, once full, can provide fodder for more Gumdrops and other plastic products. She told The Guardian: “The amazing thing is you can use it for any plastic product…. I’d love to do some Wellington boots, for example. Gum boots, in fact.””
Read more at Discover Magazine
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Are these bins biodegradable plastic?
A good idea. But you’d need a lot of them dotted around otherwise people will still spit their gum out where they find themselves.
LC x
How about making rubber bullets out of gum and blasting people who drop it on the street?..
…Imagine taking this one step furthur and applying it to people that let their dogs crap in the streets- I’ll volunteer to patrol with ma’ poo gun…
Why don’t people swallow their chewing gum? It then ends up in the toilet .. it wont stick to your bowls or such ..
Kinda neat though, to re-use chewing gum. Kids do that too .. stealing eachother gum from eachother’s mouth or from the street (they are already against those chewing gum plastered roads .. so simply have some kids roam around there …. )
You can use it as clay as well, chewing gum. Or use it as glue or to paste something to the screen of your colleague when stickies are not available ..
Multifunctional .. chewing gum .. AND it boosts and stimulate the brain!