Week 6 Pitch: Feedback from Lyn and Mark

Written from a voice recording: 

“Piggybacking on Harold is a good idea of an existing model that the schools and kids understand to some extent. Directionally that feels like a really useful partnership to develop and also the back of the presentation you're talking about other partners and you have done investigation about funding sources, that looks really good. What this hangs on is how this thing ‘the plastics workshop’ works, so what you’re talking about is this as a service but it’s also the event and in terms of making this work in the longer term you will want to get inside what’s happening inside the container and give people a really good understanding of that because it depends on a whole pile of things. Around sources of materials, HDPE great, you’re talking about not contaminating that with anything else because you are producing something which will then stay in the school environment, you want to manage that as much as possible, you’ve acknowledged that which is great. I think the idea of getting your workshops to turn out the kind of lego style bricks you could work on. Do you know how many milk bottles it takes to make a brick? that's just one of the things to look for, I don't think you'll have any trouble getting the material to recycle i think the issue is for these block to be useful you want probably four/five times as much as you've got in those images. It just means that there's a lot of bricks and lot of plastic and cycling time. Just something you've got to build into your workshop model. So I think that's looking really interesting one of the things that seems to be happening, that creates confusion in recycling is that the rules change from area to area depending on what recycling resources are available and also change over time and that was one of the things when you started off this, one thing that I was aware of. They can recycle soft plastics in Auckland but in Wellington we can't for example. So even if you put soft plastics in your recycling, they are a pain in the arse for the recycling process they tend to chew up the machine and make it more expensive and get in the way of the process. So just something about that as the education process whether that's in here or not  just something that occurred to me. And then the other thing is just going back to the cost. You need a driver for the truck. You need people inside their who are really good educators and who can relate to kids and do you need someone inside Pete the penguin? Extra load of cost that you want to layer into this, I think your investigation of the funds and the places you might find some money is really good. Because you've got to that point you can be building of that already. It is what happens in side the container that I think is the key for success and again from that point of view from the money sitting in my back pocket I want to see that stuff". -Lyn

"Also websites don't make themselves, and print adds don't write themselves so there are  designers, writers and editors so the price is a lot more than that. Only other thing I would add would be like he's saying about the pragmatics of the workshop think if i'm gonna invest in your company id quite like to know how it works, pulls up, this happens, this is how it works with the classes. Even a small school there will be 160 students and they all want to be in there at the same time, same minute. How is that organised, how is it facilitated, where are all the bottles, i think i need to know how it works to know that it's all possible. Then you got bigger schools which are 1,000 to 2,000 kids what are you gonna do? how long is the truck there? and also safety things but I reckon there's an opportunities, is it a brick? I'm wondering if there's any issues of making bricks, potential for being sued, there a good chance I recon. But then there's bricks and then there's other things, theres other plastic things in the classroom and if you only made one then you could make a table, or could you make the containers for putting stuff in, but then the bricks can turn into walls, i've seen whole spaces made with walls and stuff. What do the schools need? what can be stackable.

I feel like theres a real opportunity to sell this project if you can convince me that theres a post experience follow on from the event so there's kind of like when they do this they will be sold on recycling, but i'm not convinced, yet. I feel like it's on the way there the stories there but i feel like just keep it simple don't do all the plastic in the world, maybe phase it. If you make bricks how do you tell the parents is this part of the process, do you put it in school newsletter, how do we tell the story thats all part of generating interest and getting more money and getting this idea out into the homes beyond the school. So there's a little bit of work to be done there, but if you can pull it off then you're more likely to get (not sure what word he said here". -Mark

Evaluation

What's good:

• Piggybacking off Harold. Great partnership to develop further.
• The investigation of funding looks really good
• HDPE and turning it into something in the school environment is great

What needs work: 

• How 'The Plastic Workshop' will work. Whats happening inside the container? Develop it further so they know the exact process of truck arriving, how its facilitated, this happens, kids coming on board, publicity after event (newsletter), how the parents are involved or told about it ect. 
• We need to work on the lego bricks idea. Find something the classrooms may need?
• Theres a lot of plastic needed and a lot of cycling time for the bricks. Potential for being sued with lego like bricks?
• What creates confusion is not all recycling is similar throughout NZ and changes over time? how do we tackle this?
• Develop the costing
• A real opportunity to sell this project if you can convince people that theres a post experience follow up from the event so there's kind of like when they do this they will be sold on recycling in the future? and getting the involvement happening in homes after the school event are over.