A message to our supporters – Envision Update

We would like to thank all those supporters of Envision Hands who have been assisting this project since it commenced 18 months ago as a small environmental education program in Werribee. We had previously been using other forms of plastic to make mobility aids and other recycled items for children and the community, and we shifted our focus to recycling bottle caps (HDPE and LDPE plastic).

The first phase of the Envision Hands project was bottle cap collection. Our target was to collect 1,000,000 bottle caps. Phase one was hugely successful. We have vastly exceeded our target, with the collection of over 5,000,000 bottle caps in Victoria and another 10,000,000 collected interstate. These bottle caps will be transported to our sites in Victoria in early 2020.

Phase Two of the project was to use the bottle caps to create children’s mobility aids. Our initial research and development into Phase Two was promising. However, there have been complications in the production and quality assurance stages of Phase Two.

Our team has been working tirelessly to troubleshoot these problems and achieve the vision that we all want to see come to life. For the past several months, much effort has gone in to reformatting the design, production and reconfiguration of HDPE and LDPE plastic. Despite our best efforts, the children’s mobility aids that we have produced from recycled bottle caps have not met our internal quality standards. Regrettably, Phase Two of the project will cease, and we will no longer seek support for the Envision Hands project.

Whilst Envision will no longer be making mobility aids from recycled bottle caps, there are a number of other organisations providing high-quality mobility aids made from other forms of plastic, who continue to provide excellent service to those in need in the community.

Envision has been overwhelmed by the support we have received for the Envision Hands project, and we do not want to see your support and effort go to waste. Therefore, we are now working on utilising the recycled bottle caps to make a range of items that can benefit children and our community, including:

– Buddy Benches for schools, parks, churches and community organisations;

– Small tables and stools for playgroups, kindergartens, pre-schools and other children’s groups;

– Bricks for community gardens;

– Equipment for schools and kindergartens;

– Environmental and household items.

Envision has always, and will continue to, work hard to support both local and overseas communities. Some of the work that we have been involved with over the last four years has involved recycling, restoring and reworking a variety of products to assist people in need. Our previous projects include:

– Rescuing and restoring bikes that are have been donated to Rotary for distribution to children in East Timor.

– Restoring and upgrading large numbers of computers to be distributed by Rotary to schools in East Timor.

– Producing baby clothing and hygiene packs for Friends of Girls for distribution into India, the New Guinea Central Highlands and Pacific Islands.

Domestically, we provide:

– Clothing and bags for Backpacks for Kids to be distributed to children aged 0-17 years entering out-of-home care and emergency accommodation in Victoria.

– Bicycles to schools for distribution to students in need.

– Food parcels for distribution to people experiencing homelessness.

– Animal shelters for Aware Wildlife, and a range of other projects of benefit to the wider community.

Envision has been working in plastic recycling since 2017, with a view to promoting the benefits of recycling to the local community. We will continue to work hard and overcome hurdles in the use of recycled materials.

Our sites will continue to remain open to those who would like to visit, including our Thomastown and Werribee sites where people can view some of the mobility aids that we have completed plus the other exciting work we are continuing to do with recycled plastic and other products.

It is likely we will stop the bottle cap collection to focus on the processing of the caps we already have. We will confirm this next week in another public statement issued to Facebook.

If you have any questions or require any further information, please email customer.service@envisionemployment.com.au

We wish to thank all of our supporters for your ongoing faith and support in Envision.