A Sacramento artist is giving #2 plastic a new life

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With a $20 panini press she got off Facebook marketplace and a hand-crank plastic shredder, Sacramento artist Sam Mejia is transforming everyday plastic waste into functional art.

Mejia has always been a maker, but she said she started noticing how much plastic waste was piling up around her, especially colorful detergent bottles and containers that aren’t always easy to recycle. That pushed her toward giving number two plastic a second life.

Now she runs EcoPress, a small Sacramento startup that melts down donated HDPE plastic and turns it into early prototypes for furniture and art. Mejia sorts, cleans and processes the plastic herself, heating it in small batches and pressing it into thick, marbled sheets that can be cut and shaped into usable pieces.

“Right now, we have several locations of our collection bins located all over the Sacramento area where we’re inviting the public to bring in their number two plastic, donate it to our collection bin, and then I’ll go through, collect them, sort them, clean them, process them, start shredding, and melting,” Mejia said.

EcoPress hopes to gather enough material this year to build its first full-size piece—a table with matching chairs. To show what that could look like, Mejia created miniature models cut from recycled plastic slabs.

Miniature chair prototypes made from recycled plastics sit on display on Nov. 14, 2025.Tony Rodriguez/CapRadio

“We are hoping to collect 50 pounds of number two plastic so that way we can make a large three-by-three-foot table along with matching four chairs, and so I made little mini scale models of the chairs that I am hoping to be able to make once we get more plastic,” she said.

The project is rooted in a mission to keep plastics out of the wrong places, like local waterways. Mejia says she was inspired by the Precious Plastic movement and wanted to create a Sacramento version that shows people exactly what they can do with the plastic they throw away.

Hope Suson, who runs a sustainable product store in Old Sacramento called Ecojoyous, said she rarely carries any plastic items. But said she would make an exception for EcoPress items because the art is made from recycled material, and not newly made plastic.

“We are not here to sell plastic. There are places that sell plastic and that is not what we are about,” Suson said. “But [EcoPress] is about recycling plastic, and that gives it new purpose.”

A sheet of melted number two plastic on Nov. 14, 2025. The startup melts donated household plastics into colorful slabs that can be cut and shaped into new products.Tony Rodriguez/CapRadio

EcoPress has placed collection bins across the region and is pushing residents to check their recycling symbols before tossing containers. Aiza Leon with EcoPress said the goal is to move past the idea that recycling ends once something is dropped in the blue bin.

“Instead of throwing that … plastic into the recycling bin, wishing that somebody else is going to take care of it, we’re actually going to take care of it. So that is our mission right now,” Leon said.

Leon said EcoPress wants to intercept plastic before it’s disposed of and keep it circulating locally.

EcoPress shreds down detergent bottles, lotion containers and other number two plastics into hardened panels for future designs on Nov. 14, 2025.Tony Rodriguez/CapRadio

“We know people already recycle. And especially coming with this holiday season, there is so much opportunity for that plastic to come back to us and to stay in Sacramento too as new products when the store opens next year,” she said.

The team is also encouraging neighborhoods, businesses and community spaces to partner with EcoPress by hosting collection bins.

“If anyone out there is interested in partnering with EcoPress Sacramento on having a collection bin at your site, we are happy to work with you. We will provide the bin, we will do weekly cleanups of the bin, or as much as you need,” Leon said.

Mejia is currently a finalist in the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s Calling All Dreamers program, which helps new entrepreneurs secure a downtown storefront. She hopes to open one in 2026 where people can watch the recycling process, try the hand-crank shredder, and take workshops on making new items from household waste.