Our nimBIN Chickens plastic reclamation project is expanding, and now ready for the local community’s clean plastics!
Under the tolerant supervision of Nimbin Neighbourhood Centre and 7 Sibley’s Sustainability Hub, and with many thanks to the Nimbin Showground for providing us an incredible workshop space, we have been learning, playing, and practising many new skills over the last two years.
Our group of volunteers has expanded to include carpenters, engineers, and plenty of others, with an amazing collection of knowledge between them.
We have been making weatherproof benches for Nimbin, along with gates, caravan fittings, property numbers, tiles and more, limited only by the imaginations of our Binchickens… and our supply of plastics!
We were generously gifted quite a large amount of plastic lids with the re-moulding machines, which, along with a steady trickle from the community, has comfortably fed our experiments until now.
That supply is now almost gone, and we’ve only just reached full processing ability. We need to reclaim more plastics from the local waste streams, and we would love your help!
We have created Binchicken Bins – 20L square buckets which can fit neatly next to your kitchen bin, or even hang on the wall. They are available free of charge to local households, businesses, and community groups.
You can pick them up from the Sustainability Hub at 7 Sibley Street, or from our workshop at the Showground on Tuesday mornings. Each Binchicken Bin comes with a handy poster, to make it simple to know what goes in there.
Our favourite resources are lids, milk bottles, and certain dessert tubs and squeeze bottles, though anything under 10cm diameter and made of 2, 4, or 5 plastics is appreciated!
When the bin is full, bring it back to us for emptying.
Every 12 buckets separated is equivalent to a full recycling bin – a massive difference if you don’t have bin service, and even if you live in town, it’s a satisfying change to make for our environment (particularly when you realise that all street bins go to landfill, due to incessant contamination of recycling trucks by a small number of careless individuals!)
10 to 15 kilograms of plastic – around 5000 milk bottle lids – makes one bench, which is weatherproof enough to last for years, even in local rainforest conditions. Saves timber, removes plastic scraps from the environment, and also reduces reliance on fossil fuels in multiple ways. It’s an absolute win-win.
Be part of the solution – pick up your Binchicken Bin next time you come into town, and feel free to come join the workshop fun any Tuesday morning.
You never know what we’ll make next, your experiment could become the next big thing!
