Lars Ljungkull has gone down the sustainable route with his latest university project: skis from plastic bags. He is currently studying industrial design at Iowa State University and his recycled plastic skis are made specifically because of the type of plastic used:
he chose to use plastic bags because the HDPE they are made from is similar to UHMWPE, which is used in performance skis. after discovering the inherent beauty and strength of the resulting material, he set out to make the skis entirely from it.
through a series of tests, ljungkull learned more about the material before finishing with a functional pair on the fourth prototype. due to the relative softness of the recycled plastic material, it was necessary to add a birch plywood core to allow for ideal flex. steel edges were also co-molded into the skis for performance.
Lars made four prototypes and approached Hinterland Skis to collaborate.
(via designboom)