As the world becomes more educated on the environmental effects of the amount of trash we create, more and more people are trying to integrate more sustainable ways of living. There are a variety of ways to make your life more sustainable, one way is to repurpose items you no longer need or want instead of throwing away and creating more waste. You normally hear about this happening with different clothing items or recyclable materials but in London Anna Bullus has repurposed something that you probably thought could never have another purpose…

Anna Bullus works at the design museum in London, she teaches children about sustainability. Approximately 10 years ago she began a project looking at curbside litter and found that in addition to cigarettes, gum was the next most common type of litter found. She took her creativity and sustainable thinking to the next level and yes she has now repurpsed those pieces of gum.

After doing a little bit of research, Anna found that the main ingredient of gum is a synthetic rubber that has a similar polymer to plastics. It is also commonly found in the inner tubes of bicycle wheels which are often repurposed when they break. She created pink gum recycling bins and put up signs next to them telling people that their chewing gum can be recycled into new things. She worked hard to find industrial partners that would be willing to recycle gum but she did.

I found this article extremely fascinating, I always like to try to be creative and repurpose items that I no longer need but I can definitely say that chewed gum has never came to mind. I think it is so amazing that not only is she recycling chewed gum into useful products such as the soles of shoes, but she is cleaning up the environment at the same time by decreasing gum liter.

After reading this article it made me want to think of something creative like Anna did. If chewed gum can be recycled then we must be able to find a purpose for other everyday items. I hope this article sparks some creativity for all of you as it did with me!

Link to article: http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43198104