Trainee Keetje Wantenaar has completed her graduation project with us. She has worked on hospital waste and has made a circular slipper for use in hospitals.
Material
The slippers are made entirely of LDPE bags (low density polyethylene) which are discarded and burned by the hospital. The LDPE comes from sterile packaging bags for patient medication. This material is very suitable for slippers for patients in the hospital. An important feature of the material is that it can be made sterile. It is also very light and flexible.
Method
The LDPE bag is first cut into strips of an inch thickness. These strips are placed in circles in a mold of the desired size. Then the sealing of the top and bottom of the sole follows, which is done on the circles in the mold. The strips are trimmed and a sturdy and flexible sole is formed. For the strap, a piece of LDPE is attached to the sole by heating.
Because the slippers only consist of LDPE and the sole is connected to the strap by heating, the material remains pure and good for reuse.
The circular slipper will be shown during Groningen Design 2019.