Upcycling: the pen tube
I looked around my room for something which would otherwise be thrown away, either in trash, or “recycled.” Then I remembered how those cheap Bic pens often ran out of ink, prompting me to just throw it away in the trash. Perhaps the plastic would be “recycled” but who knows? The tube itself is a decently sturdy component. Maybe I could find a new way to use it.
I also had some eye hooks laying around. I punched (with a push pin) two holes on opposite sides of the tube. It happened to be an appropriate hole for the eye hook, allowing me to thread by hand.
With this, I made a very lo-tech grocery bag holder. Yes, it can only hold two bags. I’m also not sure what the capacity is. Some of the products below, priced between $2.79-6.95, claim 50 lbs capacities.
One Trip Grip Grocery Bag Holder
The Grabby
EZ Carry
Feel free to improve this design (using the tubes as a bag holder) or find some other nifty way to upcycle!
update
It was pointed out in class that perhaps this is not upcycling, but just another form of recycling. Good call on that. It shows how it’s so difficult to shift mindsets about the way we treat materials. How would a pen tube be redesigned if we knew that it would be used for a new purpose once the ink ran out? Of course, you can buy pen refills, but that isn’t part of the normal practice. I am too lazy to do so. If there is a built in “second-life” to the pen tube, that would be great.