Table Made of Trash

This is a blog post on my recently completed science fair project. I was given 400 minutes (6 hours and 40 minutes) in all to finish the project. This time was spaced out over two weeks in 50 minute increments. The criteria was as follows: complete it in the time limit, spend no more than $25, and make something environmentally friendly and sustainable. This is an account of how I accomplished this, what I made, and what I learned along the way.

After some consideration, I decided to make a small coffee table out of other people's trash. I did not do this for the table itself, (Yes, making the table was necessary for me to accomplish what I hoped to do, but lots of other up-cycled things would do as well.) my real goal in making the table was to showcase how easy reusing things could be. In a very short amount of time I was able to make a working, decent looking, and (mostly) durable, coffee table. It actually wasn't designed as a coffee table, but just as a little table that could fit by your couch. Calling it a coffee table is just easier than saying, “ a little table that could fit by your couch”



My project



One of the most difficult parts of making the table was gluing the top onto the base. The tops of the large tins that serve as the main structure of the base are not flat, it is hard to get the glue to be strong with so little contact. Since there were no other adhesives I wanted to use on hand, I had to find a way to solve the glue problem. After some thought, I cut a piece of cardboard to size, and glued it onto the top on the tin. I then glued the top to both the cardboard and the edge of the tin. That worked pretty well.

If you were to try a project similar to this, I recommend that make a rough plan of your design after you get your materials but before you start building. That will likely make your process smoother and easier.

Through the process, I learned a lot about reuse, glue, and a bit about engineering. I think with my experience making this, I could do better if I tried a similar project in the future. If I had more time to work on this, my next step would be talking to others and getting them on board with reuse and up-cycling. In a way, I’m doing that with this blog.

Depending on how much you are able to find in your trash, and if you have glue on hand, this project might be free! That is one of the things that makes it so cool.