Photo courtesy of Natsumi Kiso.
Precious Plastic MHC club members attend the Makers’ Fair, demonstrating the process of melting down plastic into a mold using an injection machine.
By Sarah Grinnell ’26
Science & Environment Editor
In a digital world inundated with doomsday headlines and constant reports of natural disasters, it can be easy to slip into a climate anxiety-induced state of dread.
One new student organization, Precious Plastic MHC, is on a mission to change this by taking the pessimism out of plastic and inspiring students to find joy in leading more sustainable lives.
In an email interview with Mount Holyoke News, Precious Plastic MHC President and Founder Natsumi Kiso ’26 said that the club is a “hands-on, action-oriented” org that aims to “create a closed-loop sustainable and fun way of recycling plastic within the Mount Holyoke [College] campus.” She explained that the club is a space where “students can learn a way to recycle plastic in a creative and joyful way.”
Precious Plastic MHC is inspired by the global recycling movement of the same name. According to Kiso, Precious Plastic is a “project that takes place all over the world,” and it is “open-source, meaning that all the instructions on how to reduce plastic waste are included on their website.”
According to the project website, Precious Plastic is a “combination of people, machines, platforms and knowledge to create an alternative global recycling system.” The project emphasizes “people as the key element to fix the plastic mess” and “bring about the necessary change” as opposed to “fix-it-all” technology. The organization aims to “turn plastic into precious plastic” — hence its name — by recycling waste products into new items such as furniture, construction material, jewelry and more.
Kiso is following this model in her community by taking a creativity-driven approach to tackling the plastic problem here on campus.
“Here, I really want to emphasize the phrase, ‘Nothing without Joy,’ which is the fundamental motto of this organization,” Kiso explained. “Often, environmental issues we are facing today are presented with a lot of pessimism, which I do not believe is the best way to motivate people to change their behaviors. The work of this project can create an opportunity for people to realize the ‘fun side’ of recycling plastic and visually see their contributions. This way, I believe people will be more motivated to reduce plastic waste on a daily basis.”
For Kiso, this motivation is especially important. “There is very little or no education and student-led actions on sustainability here at Mount Holyoke, which I was very surprised about,” she said. “Although it is crucial for a generation like ours to actively participate in creating a change, it is very difficult to do so when we have everything going on as college students.”
Therefore, Kiso “wanted to create an opportunity for people to actively advocate for such an important issue in a joyful way.”
Kiso said this organization is particularly special because of its interdisciplinary allure, allowing students to “combine different areas of knowledge, aligning with the liberal arts education at Mount Holyoke.”.
“Though all the student organizations are very active and amazing, I do not often see organizations that are interdisciplinary,” Kiso explained. “As an individual interested in engineering, philosophy, art, sustainability and many more [disciplines], I wanted to create a place where people can use different knowledge to achieve one goal, which motivated me to create this organization.”
According to Kiso, students in the club can expect to become familiar with the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab space, where the club holds its meetings and draws on various resources for its projects. Precious Plastic already has a major project in the works. According to Kiso, the group is constructing a large injection machine “which injects melted plastic into a mold” to make a new product. “An example of a bigger product we are hoping to create is the first-year planter pot; by the beginning of next fall, we hope to create hundreds of first-year planter pots made out of recycled plastic on campus for the first-year ceremony. This way, we hope to spread awareness for the use of plastic to the new students at Mount Holyoke, as well as introduce our organization,” Kiso said.
With the help of this new organization, Kiso hopes to attract students across all disciplines and instigate campus-wide excitement about recycling. “Raising such awareness could lead to students separating trash on their own, which will increase the amount of recyclable trash that gets sent from Mount Holyoke to the local facility,” Kiso said.
Kiso has high hopes for Precious Plastic MHC. “This organization has a big potential to make students become more aware of their daily interactions with the environment by getting to know the potential of plastic recycling,” Kiso said.