The Beginning of Yukon Plastics
When Will was a little baby I bought a wood lathe and this was the very beginning of Yukon Plastics. I laughed at myself for the purchase – what a terrible new hobby to develop while my baby grows into a toddler.
Regardless, I loved the lathe, the meditative nature of the wood shearing off, exposing the wood grain, the smoothness of it. I loved it and I loved watching YouTube videos on methods and technique. I managed to keep him safe from the sharp chisels and spinning gear straps.
One video I watched showed a person melting Type 2 plastic, HDPE or High Density Polyethylene into a brick shape, mounting it on their lathe and creating a vase out of it. I had not previously realized that plastic recycling could be done on such a small scale, by me. The curtain had been pulled back and I began to think of the opportunity, just waiting to be realized, in my recycling bin.
My son Will thought this was a really interesting thing to explore too. The first piece Will and I made was a wonky looking cutting board. It was not very good looking, but it held such promise of what was possible. I started spending less time with my lathe and he and I started investigating online resources about small scale plastic manufacturing. We were very lucky to discover the Sustainable Design Studio early on, and I started devising a way to afford one of their injection moulding machines.
Sometimes fate steps in, in this case in the form of a somewhat surprise tax return, I asked Will if he wanted to really explore starting a business doing plastic injection moulding. He, with excitement, said, Yes!’ So, I placed the order. The beautiful thing about the Sustainable Design Studio is they really want you to know how the machines work: they ship them unbuilt and so when it arrived the fun began.
The first naming idea we thought of was Yukon Plastics. Every other name paled in comparison. We wondered if it was available and hoped it was. After a quick search of Yukon business names, it turned out it was not, and our hearts and hopes sunk: it was owned by someone in Dawson City. Then our hopes raised a little: it was inactive!
We found the contact information of Ronald Berglund within the corporate registry information and I even thought I reached out to him via phone and email, I couldn’t reach him. After chatting with some Dawson City friends, they told me he is or was a goldminer and is sometimes out of town. As a last ditch method I put a post ‘Looking for a Goldminer $1,000,000’ on the facebook page ‘Town Crier and Buyer, Dawson City’. What a delight when he contacted me within a few hours, let me know that he wasn’t going to be using that business name after all, and ‘sure thing, you can have it’.
Thank you
A sincere thank you to Ronald Berglund from Will and I. We hope to meet you and thank you in person one day for being so generous and helpful in the earliest life stage of Yukon Plastics.
At first the image of ‘Yukon’ combined with ‘Plastics’ sounds badly unbalanced and counter-environmental. However, you are using recycled plastic, which would otherwise likely go into the landfill – a great idea. Wishing you well. You and Baby Will look lovely.
Hi Ralph, yes I agree, it is so discordant at first which is an interesting thing to work with.
It has been quite an experience moving beyond my dislike of plastic into my current appreciation of this durable and light material. Now when I ride my bike around and see plastic in the ditch I think ooh, look at the colour of that, and pick it up. I used to just feel sad and mad at the overwhelming issue of plastic waste.
Now with this little company, we hope to grow and transform a significant amount of yukon waste plastic into new forms. Thank you for the well wishes, always appreciated! Where are you located?
Janna
Plastic is the scourge of the world as you and your baby Will already know, I will try and keep a eye on you two and see what you can come up with and help you with your endeavour. I love the idea of cleaning up the plastic all around us and reusing it for good 😊
Hi Dan! Isn’t it though! It is so unfortunate because plastic is fantastic when used sparingly. If the planet wasn’t drowning in it we would be able to recognize its intrinsic worth. It is lightweight, durable, flexible, strong, pretty. We endeavour to make products from waste plastic that will last and that will get people thinking about how it is a valuable resource to be worked with, not sent to the dump. And if we could lessen our dependence on single use containers that would be great.