David (@dudishatz) has been pushing Precious Plastic in interesting uncharted directions with his rough & experimental creations. We reached out to him to ask a few questions on his practice.

Hey David, could you introduce yourself to the community?
My name is David Shatz and I am a recent graduate of the industrial design department of Bezalel Academy of Design, Jerusalem.
I enjoy working with my hands and exploring the physical world and all the small & large objects within it. All these objects, which surround us all the time – affect our feelings, values and narratives. As a designer I deal with recycling processes, use of public space, energy consumptions and applications of scientific research.

Where do you live?
These days I am based in Jerusalem, Israel. Yet, in exactly one month I am moving to New York. I am looking forward to seeing what will this shift bring.

How did you end up working with plastic recycling?
I enjoy exploring possibilities of materials in my immediate vicinity. As a product designer, I tend to see in every object its future forms and incarnations: a door can also be a table, a broken chair can be used to light a fire. Plastics, however, are the industry’s exclusive domain. We do not have any feel of the raw material, or what can be produced with only one more action. In order to start experimenting with this industrialized material, I decided to start recycling it with Precious Plastic.

When did you start working on Precious Plastic?
One year ago I decided to build the injection machine. I found the perfect design and manual to do so on Precious Plastic. It took me a while to manage the details, order the different parts, and find the proper place to accommodate it, but from the moment I built it I could not stop experimenting with it.

How did you start?
I started by myself, yet during the long process I have found a group of volunteers in a small organization in Jerusalem called ‘Kayamuta’, who built a shredder machine and a compressor. We decided to join forces to create a whole workshop dedicated solely to plastic recycling.

Tell us a bit about your collection of products. What was the inspiration?
My initial idea was exploring the meeting points of plastics and wood works. My main inspiration was Formica boards, which were very popular around the 1970’s. Their surfaces tend to have an organic look, which aimed to imitate real wood boards. Another inspiration was stained glass windows, and contemporary processes of stone and polymer pressing that imitate natural marble (usually used in kitchens).

What can you tell us about your process?
From the very moment the plastic injection machine was ready I started experimenting with it. The machine opened a door to a new world of explorations and potentials, which I still have barely scratched its edge. In the beginning, I explored the world of connectors: injecting into the internal space of two pieces of wood in order to create a locked connector.
I continued with injecting surfaces into wood moulds – creating patterns by multiple injections and textures transferred from the moulds themselves.
During this process I visited factories which deal with recycling industrial plastics. By learning their recycling processes, and their working methods with so many different types of plastics, I developed the injection techniques even further.

Any other techniques you want to investigate with Precious Plastic in the near future?
I hope to continue working on the technique I have developed of moulding recycled plastics using the injection machine. I also would like to explore methods of plastics rotation using a compressor and of materials conjunction with handmade plastic.

What further products/creations do you want to make with recycled plastic?
During my research, I succeeded to create a half transparent plastic mould, from which I plan to design a series of lighting objects. In addition, I plan to use the compressor to create children’s toys made of wood and plastic.

What is your goal working with Precious Plastic?
To make plastic great again. Plastics have a bad reputation since they have been overused in the industry, and create large amounts of non-recycled waste. Rethinking the material’s great qualities will allow us to design better and sustainable use of it.

What were the biggest difficulties you’ve encountered working with Precious Plastic?
Finding the proper heating components that will work well.

What’re the biggest successes you’ve achieved so far?
I created a new organic-like aesthetic qualities using what seems to be the most industrialized material. I also found new ways of connecting wood with injected plastic.

Do you have a message for the community?
I wish more designers would use plastics in the craft world. We do not need to work with plastics the way the industry does. We also can not imitate industrial processes precisely, but we can create casting moulds of cheap wood in order to get interesting textures on our surfaces, we can inject or press into different readymades and, most importantly, we can break free from the shiny block aesthetics of the industrialised plastic.
We can, and we should rethink plastics.

It is always refreshing to see talented designers pushing Precious Plastic beyond its known limits. The conceptual thinking David infers to the plastic objects he crafts is key to help the shift in societies’ view on plastic- from cheap to valuable. We also particularly enjoy the bold aesthetic look of its craft plastic objects.

Thanks David, keep rocking 💪

‍