In a seven-month collaboration with Orkney’s Tern360, this Impact Acceleration Account Fellowship explored how local communities can lead the way in recycling marine plastics, blending traditional craft with environmental action through a series of workshops and public engagement activities.
At a glance
- The project ran a series of marine plastics workshops in local schools on Orkney, as well as producing of a prototype ‘Ocean Orkney Chair’, incorporating ocean plastic, in collaboration with local craft practitioners.
- The aim was to heighten awareness of, and change attitudes, perceptions and actions relating to, the potential of using marine plastics as a viable material resource for diverse making practices.
- The workshops and public engagement activities were conducted as part of the Orkney International Science Festival in September 2025 and involved more than 500 participants ranging from 7 to 75 years old.
- A children’s fan-backed ‘peerie’ Orkney Chair made from ocean plastics was created for the project, in conjunction with local Orkney Chair maker Kevin Gauld, which will be exhibited in the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall.
- The Fellowship was been funded through the RCA AHRC Impact Acceleration Account award (UKRI reference number AH/X00337X/1).
Key details
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The challenge
Ocean plastic is a global environmental problem that is growing in both significance and severity. It also represents an underused material resource that is freely available in affected Scottish coastal areas. On the remotest beaches known to man, landscapes permeated by plastic objects have developed, mostly undisturbed by human intervention, yet speak loudly of the Anthropocene epoch for generations to come.
Our approach
The project consisted of a range of impact activities, conducted over a seven-month period in conjunction with the Orkney-based community organisation Tern360, that explored the potential of recycling ocean plastics alongside local communities.
Building on the initial research on remanufacturing ocean plastics into 3D-printing filament undertaken by (Vones & Lambert, 2019), workshops conducted as part of the Orkney International Science Festival were used to develop a community-led ethical approach on addressing the use of Ocean plastics on Orkney, and provided practical instruction in a range of plastics remanufacturing techniques.
An outcome of the project was the ‘Ocean Plastics Workshop Manual’ which will disseminate the learning methodologies of the project as an educational template for future use by institutions in other affected coastal communities. Additionally, the creation of the Ocean Orkney Chair draws attention to how the traditional material narratives of coastal communities such as Orkney have the potential to reflect local making traditions, while being altered in the face of environmental change. As materials such as driftwood and locally grown straw are replaced by remanufactured ocean plastics, the potential of using marine plastics as a viable material resource for diverse making practices is revealed.
Outputs
Conference Presentation: “Making the Ocean Orkney Chair: Fostering Community Engagement with Ocean Plastics” given at MoPRA - Understanding Plastics: from Controversy to Heritage and Beyond, São João da Madeira, 5-7 November 2025
Partners
Tern360
Tern360 are an Orkney-based design practice who use co-design to create practical and local solutions to challenges, bringing communities together to create pathways towards a more circular, regenerative and equitable world. They exist to see a restored earth where humans and creation thrive together.
Joel Chaney (Tern360)
Lewis Campbell (Tern360)
