The Plastic Pollution Problem
Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans. The world’s plastic pollution is at its peak and it’s our responsibility to maximize the sustainability of our lifestyle.
Upcycling is a great way to both reduce the amount of plastic waste and to behave more responsively with the resources of our earth.
As musicians, we know about the value of sustainability, since we maintain our equipment and cherish our instruments which sometimes even last longer than our lifes.
However, there is one little helper made of plastic, that can be count to the use-and-throw things, as we wear it out like there’s no tomorrow: the pick.
At Vanterra Arts, we wanted to fix this fault in the system and therefore invented the CyclePick™.
A CyclePick™ is a guitar pick made out of trash, or more specifically, outdated check cards. For having the ideal material and thickness, check cards like credit cards, debit cards or loyalty cards can be easily transformed into guitar picks by using a pick cutter or a similar punching machine.
And that’s what we do.
We create handmade picks out of discarded plastic plates and therefore grant them a second life full of Rock and Roll.
The Upcycling Process
- We accept scrapped plastic cards, that would have been thrown away otherwise
- We use our punching machine to make 2-3 picks out of every single card
- We use sandpaper to soften the edges of the workpiece
- We offer this handmade piece of love for only 3.49€ + Shipping.
Do you want to be part of this little step for sustainability? Then send us your plastic plate up to 2 mm thickness and we’ll upcycle it. Or consider buying one of our CyclePicks™ instead of buying a new one at another shop.
Please be aware: Since the quality of our source material varies a lot, it is not recommended to use our CyclePicks™ for live gigs or studio recording purposes. However, using them as practicing picks, spare items or simply as a statement for sustainability is perfectly fine!
Disclaimer: For us, data privacy and security is a very sensitive topic. Therefore, please make sure that you only send those cards to us, that have zero functionality (like inactive loyalty cards after a closed membership), so that the information on the card cannot be used. If you want to play safe, simply cut out your name and/or the according number before sending the card to us. Even with the missing material, it’ll be possible for us to at least make 1-2 picks out of the remaining plastic.