Green Bend company moves into new arena, offering recycled plastic panels to turn into furniture

(Update: Adding video, comments from Broomsmen co-founder, chief technology officer)

'We noticed we were collecting lots of plastic that needed a place to go'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A Bend business known for sustainability has a new venture: It's making furniture from the plastic handles that hold your six-pack together.

The Broomsmen have a history of environmentally friendly business ideas. Their new focus is under the name Local Plastic, and they're producing panels which become tables and chairs.

"We've done lots of events in Bend over the years, and we noticed we were collecting lots of plastic that needed a place to go," Phil Torchio, Local Plastic's co-founder said Wednesday.

Torchio explained what can be made from the materials collected.

"So, far, we've created these panels that can be turned into furniture," he said. "We've been working with furniture designers to turn that into tables, chairs and also architectural panels."

Chief Technology Officer Scott Wilson told us what's to come. 

"We're working on a website and an app that you can scan the plastic that we are pressing, and you'll know exactly where it came from and how it wound up in your hands," Wilson said.

"For it to wind up in someone's house or business as a beautiful piece of plastic or some functional furniture is -- it's pretty, pretty sweet," he added.

The company works with about 20 breweries to collect the plastic. 

Torchio said, "The majority of our plastic right now is coming from the breweries, and they're collecting the six-pack handles. So we're collecting a lot of pack tech, six-pack handles from local breweries."

"Save your handles and get them to the local breweries," he urged. "We are working with the local breweries to make sure they get back to our warehouse."  

Torchio walked us through the next steps, after the plastic handles have been gathered.

"We collect these from the breweries, and we put it in our grinder and we create this plastic flake -- and you can see how colorful it is," he said.

"That's because of all the different colors of the handles that we collect, and then from there we put it in our machine, which is basically a big panini press, and then out comes these beautiful panels."