What better footwear to go with the DIY IKEA raincoat we featured last week than these upcycled rain boots? (They even come in the same shade of ultramarine—sartorial kismet!) Conceived by Waste for Life by Louie Rigano, a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design, the sturdy and surprisingly chic galoshes are fabricated from plastic bags collected by cartoneros, or impoverished Argentineans who make their living collecting trash in Buenos Aires.
PUDDLE JUMPERS
The process, which involves hot-pressing layers of plastic bags with a stiff interfacing such as cheesecloth, was designed to be easily replicable so the cartoneros could make and sell the boots to generate income. And since plastic is inherently water-resistant, cranking out rain boots from rounded up trash is not only extremely economical but also practical.
The boots were designed to be easily replicable for Argentinean trash collectors to make and sell.
You can even make your own using the template that Rigano has provided. For fused-plastic-bag neophytes, Etsy’s step-by-step tutorial demonstrates how to create flat sheets using an iron and some freezer paper.
[Via TreeHugger]
[...] The only thing that Betz White’s Toadstool Rain Bucket Hat are missing is a pair of these clever recycled plastic bag rain boots. Louie Rigano of the RISD Waste for Life studio designed these as a sustainable product that could be made by cartoneros, impoverished folks living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who make a living collecting plastic bags. Rigano has instructions and a template posted on his site. The trick in the boots is to fuse an additional fibrous material in between the plastic layers. Refer to the Betz White tutorial for detailed instructions on fusing plastic bags. (via ecouterre) [...]
[...] http://www.ecouterre.com/14353/turn-used-plastic-bags-into-a-pair-of-upcycled-rain-boots/ « Previous Post [...]
[...] The only thing that Betz White’s Toadstool Rain Bucket Hat are missing is a pair of these clever recycled plastic bag rain boots. Louie Rigano of the RISD Waste for Life studio designed these as a sustainable product that could be made by cartoneros, impoverished folks living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who make a living collecting plastic bags. Rigano has instructions and a template posted on his site. The trick in the boots is to fuse an additional fibrous material in between the plastic layers. Refer to the Betz White tutorial for detailed instructions on fusing plastic bags. (via ecouterre) [...]
[...] news for Louie Rigano, senior in ID, Ecouterre featured his up-cycled rain boots from the Waste for Life studio last fall. Congrats Louie, and [...]