From Zero to Hero

Chewing gum stuck under our shoes is usually very disturbing, but if we look at the picture above, the shoe sole in the picture above is made from chewing gum waste. Now in UK (United Kingdom) there is a new breakthrough that is recycling garbage gum waste.

A designer from UK Anna Bullus is the originator of this idea. He has a mission to turn the gum trash into something useful as well as change the behavior of people who always throw away chewing gum on the streets. Chewing gum is the most common garbage on the streets after cigarettes. The UK spends about £ 50 million annually to clean up the garbage.

Anna Bullus discovered this idea about 10 years ago. At that time he saw garbage on the side of the road and tried to find which garbage can be recycled. Then he noticed the gum trash and there was nothing to recycle gum. He then find out what chemicals contained in a chewing gum, it turns out the main ingredient of chewing gum is synthetic rubber similar to polymer plastic. The material is called ployisobutylene which is also found on the inner tube. And as a designer he feels he can do something with the chewing gum.

But the problem for Anna is how to collect these gum trashes. One of the strategies by Anna is to make a special chewing gum. The University of Winchester became the first location of this special chewing gum.Initially Anna made 11 special bins. Then he made a campaign by distributing hundreds of coffe cups made from recycled gum. Eight months later there was a very rapid increase in the amount of rubber that was thrown into the special waste bin.

Later, every recycled item should contain at least 20% of the waste gum. At Amber Velley, a plastic printer in Leicester, Anna started to design the object she wanted to create.

The project from Anna has received financial support from Wrigley, one of the largest manufacturers. According to Wrigley, through the speaker said that the idea of Anna is very creative and innovative. He strongly supports this project and hopes for a change in community behavior in disposing of chewing gum especially.

Hopefully we can also participate in campaigns and acts of environmental care like this.