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Product Design

What Is A Bottle Cutter For?

Besides the obvious

By Kat Bauman - March 9, 2016

The Plastic Bottle Cutter by Pavel & Ian will make spaghetti out of your recyclables. This hand-held shredder has already blown past its Kickstarter goal and you still have weeks and weeks left to pick up your own. Why do you need one? The makers believe it will help with recyclability by helping in the reuse department.

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The design seems to be based directly on the traditional strap-cutter used in leatherwork, and the output is pretty obvious. Plastic! In strips! Can you use it in a weed whacker? Does it recycle more easily? We're not sure.

Crafts? You betcha.

Since the tool is effectively a notched wooden rectangle with an adjustable throat and a slot for a box cutter, the mechanics are pretty straightforward. Cut the bottom off your bottle, fit it in the gap, twist, and start pulling out plastic ribbon.

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At risk of being way wrong about the demand for DIY plastic strip art, this thing is a simply designed tool for an uncertainly defined need. According to the suggestions here, DIY plastic cord could be used around the home and garden as a durable alternative to wire and rottable twines. They also (more sketchily) advocate it's use for load-bearing capacities as well.

Need a tow? I've got a Pepsi and a bottle cutter in my trunk.

Reduce, reuse and recycle are all important parts of a more ecological demand and production cycle (and ordered by importance). But does this speak to a need for more plastic twine, to a craft movement I'm unaware of, or to the need to reduce our dependence on disposable plastics?

Why do so many people want one? What would you use it for?

Kat Bauman

Irritated machine-lover and international Portland correspondent.

8 Comments

Rodrigo Guadarrama Murrieta

3 years ago

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It'd be great if there were a 3D printer that took filament in this form.

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- PΔUL HΔRRISON
  
  Rodrigo Guadarrama Murrieta
  
  3 years ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  Reply
  
  MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!
  
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- Julius Lim
  
  Rodrigo Guadarrama Murrieta
  
  3 years ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  Reply
  
  yes' so that we could save alot plastic.
  
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Lalit NarayanTaparia

2 years ago

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Nice to see such a plastic bottle cutter as till now only glass bottle cutter were heaping to recycle empty wine bottle. Now, we can easily recycle good quality plastic bottle from coke too. Loved it.

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Jim Lewis

3 years ago

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My first thought also, transform bottles into 3D printer fodder.

As strings, it is likely too sharp on the edges to be convenient to use.

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Jorge Ceballos

3 years ago

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A very similar object (perhaps not as cute as this) was developed by designers Alejandro Sarmiento and Miki Friedenbach in 2002 (yes, 14 years ago; you know, design is circular...) for a project called "Contenido Neto" (also based on the traditional strap-cutter used in leatherwork) in Argentina. You can view a publication of the project and background in this link, http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2006/04/13/woven-from-waste-alejandro-sarmiento.html
I've heard a few years ago they were working on application in 3D printers also, but I don't know how's it going...

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Michel Boot

3 years ago

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I was wondering the same as well. It nice to see how the bottle transforms in the plastic string, though :)
Would it not be better to just recycle the bottle. I could see scenarios where people just end up with a bunch of strings laying around their house, so it will end up in the general waste instead.
It would be cool to see a 3D printer that takes this as a filament as Rodrigo mentions.

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Michel Boot

3 years ago

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I was actually wandering the same as well. It is nice to see how the bottle transforms into the plastic strings, though.
Would it not be better to recycle the bottles. Otherwise people will end up with plastic strings around there house that they are not using and might end up in their general waste instead.
I would be cool to see a 3D printer that would take this as filament as Rodrigo mentions.

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