When people spit out globs of chewing gum, the gooey stuff tends to stick around. The main ingredient in most gum is a rubber-like material that doesn’t biodegrade, or break down naturally. French design students Hugo Maupetit and Vivian Fischer wanted to keep used gum off sidewalks. So for a school project, they created a method to recycle it—into skateboard wheels!
“Pollution from chewing gum is a problem, particularly in cities,” says Maupetit. He and Fischer installed collection boards in Nantes, France, for people to stick their gum. After collecting the chewed wads, the pair cleaned, melted, and molded them into colorful skateboard wheels.
Maupetit and Fischer hope their project will encourage skateboard and chewing gum companies to create wheels from waste on a bigger scale!