Pegasus Post: June 16, 2022

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6 Thursday June 16 2022 Saving the planet one skateboard • By Emily Moorhouse A 15-YEAR-OLD plans to educate people on the importance of recycling through his skateboard business. Neith Absalom has found a way to reuse plastic bottle tops by melting them down to make skateboard decks. Neith is a student at special character school Ao Tawhiti in the central city and got the idea to make skateboards during a self-directed learning session. Neith decided he wanted to take up rowing, but needed funds to cover the cost of the sport, inspiring him to start a business that worked towards eco-friendliness at the same time. After some researching, Neith learned that number two plastic (high-density polyethylene), made out of plastic bottle tops often isn’t recycled. “It’s really easy to melt safely. I had a thing with skateboards because I really love skateboarding so it turned into art pieces and skateboards,” Neith said. “The current crisis that we’re in now is people kind of saying it’s going to be alright and really it’s not, and my whole thing is to open people’s eyes up to the stuff that we’re not recycling which is quite easily recycled.” Neith uses just over 1000 bottle tops to make a board, shredding the plastic before melting it down at 120-150 deg C in a metal frame using a “bake oven.” Neith made his first board last year with an old heat plate he found on Trade Me, using a wooden frame, but this burnt so he switched to a metal frame that his friend Monty shaped for him in their school’s tech room. ‘As long as it’s not thrown back into the rubbish I’m happy’ – Neith Absalom Now, he uses what he calls a bake oven, but said it’s really just an old barbecue. It takes about one and a half to two hours to fully melt the bottle tops down, applying pressure with a non-stick sheet. Neith then takes the board to the school’s tech room to smooth out the edges and put holes in it where the wheels would be attached. A problem Neith ran into during the process was the lack of grip on the board, which didn’t matter if the board was put on display as art, like the ones he has in his school’s cafe and New Brighton’s Pier People art gallery. However, if they were being used practically, they needed to have more grip on the surface, so his mother Natalie suggested getting old coffee sacks that cafes throw away and pressing them into the board. This would not only create a cool pattern but gives the surface of the board a much better grip, Neith said. He said his mother has often chipped in to help with his business and is very supportive of him as well as his learning adviser (teacher) Ian Hayes. “He’s real good to me and helping me get on the right track and believes that I can do it and MELT: Absalom shreds the bottle tops in a shredder before melting them down into a steel mold in an old barbecue. nothing’s going to get in my way.” Now that Neith has figured out the right process to making the boards, he plans to start selling them and working on getting his brand out there. ART: (Above left) – The board Neith Absalom designed for the Pier People art gallery in New Brighton and (above) the one that sits on display in Ao Tawhiti’s cafe. He sells the boards for $120 each and said the money he makes will go straight back into the business for now before he can start making a profit. When asked if he was going to take up rowing soon he said he wasn’t sure anymore. “I’ve kind of made this really good eco business that I kind of maybe want to carry on forever,” he laughed. When people ask Neith if the boards are strong enough he says they seem to be stronger than the wooden ones you get from places like The Warehouse. “As long as you know how to put a skateboard together then you’re sweet,” he said. Matariki Wānaka Matariki Takiura Join us for our FREE whānau day! 10am–2pm Tautoru I TSB Space, Tūranga Ko te tumanako ka kite koe i reira! Rāhoroi 18 Pipiri (Saturday 18 June) Matariki Artwork supplied by Paula Rigby ©2017
Thursday June 16 2022 7 at a time Neith, of Greta Valley, sources the bottle tops from cafes around the city and a retirement village in Amberley, as well as the Halswell Community Hub. He’s even received a load of bottle tops from someone in Waikato who had come across his Facebook page, which he said was pretty cool. When he leaves school, Neith wants to be a chiropractor or physiotherapist, as he likes helping people but doesn’t like blood. He has future plans to make longboard decks and include wheels on them as a step up from the smaller boards he’s making without wheels. He said he doesn’t mind what people do with the skateboards, whether they use them practically or hang them up on display. “That’s cool with me as long as it’s loved, as long as it’s not thrown back into the rubbish I’m happy,” he said. To have a look at Neith’s work go to ‘Over The Top Recycling’ on Facebook. CREATE: Neith Absalom uses just over 1000 bottle tops to make a skateboard, melting them down in an old barbecue. PHOTO: JOHN COSGROVE & McMaster Heap Veterinary practice THE IMPORTANCE OF GIVING BLOOD Recently my wee Macy, two year old Black Labrador, gave her blood in the hope of saving a dogs life. Lola donated blood frequently in her earlier years before she got kidney cancer and had chemotherapy, rendering her unsuitable. Macy used to be needle phobic and it would take a lot of persuading and many treats just to get her still enough to take her own blood for testing. She has watched me lots pulling blood from other dogs, so this time around she was brave. Firstly we needed to blood type her to make sure she was a match for the patient. The dog requiring her blood had already had one past transfusion, so this time around we needed a perfect blood match. Luckily our external laboratory move fast to cross match the blood, so within the hour we knew Macy was going to be a donor. Both were DEA 1.1 negative. Macy was then sedated and prepared for her transfusion. Blood is taken via a large bore COAGULOPATHY can happen with poisoning like rat bait, shock, cancers, parasites, liver disease and acute blood loss. To see whether a patient needs a transfusion we clinically and physically evaluate them. There are blood tests we run to check RBC numbers, platelet numbers and clotting times. Blood products are not a benign treatment and do come with potential risks, and are also a financial consideration to the patient’s owner - choosing the best time to transfuse to provide the maximum benefit is also essential, especially if finances are limited for multiple transfusions. Then we need to decide what blood product to give. A few types are fresh whole blood FWB, fresh frozen plasma FFP, packed red blood cells PRBCs and frozen plasma FP. The patient in question got FWB from Macy. This is blood collected from the donor in whole form and contains both ADJUSTABLE MASSAGE BED by needle from her jugular vein and it takes 10-15 minutes to pull so she needs to lie perfectly still, hence the sedation. She wasn’t readily giving up her blood but we managed to get about 400mls to transfuse. Immediately the transfused Whole Blood is administered to the dog needing it, slowly infused via a pump system. Often the recipient immediately feels better and has more energy. The main reasons we transfuse a patient is for ANEMIA (where a patient has a reduced number of Red Blood cells) and COAGULOPATHY (clotting dysfunction). RBCs deliver oxygen to tissues so we can’t do without these. ANEMIA can be acute (road traffic accidents) or chronic (as in cancers, poisons like rat bait and Immume mediated disorders). The dog Macy helped out had Immune Mediated Anemia and Thrombocytopenia (low platelets). red blood cells and plasma elements. It is easily collected and requires no processing before transfusion. Main purpose - acute blood loss or active bleeding, as it replaces what is directly being lost. Unless transfused to the patient within 6-8 hours of collection, it is a poor source of clotting factors. Main indication for use is anemia. Blood transfusions don’t happen every day but when a patient does require blood, it needs to happen then and there if we are to save a life. Many of the staff pets have been blood typed so now we have a pool of donors to call on if needed. Obviously they need to be healthy, fully vaccinated, the right weight to give up 1/2 litre blood and not receiving chemotherapy or immunosuppressive drugs. A great gift to be able to give another dog, I’m very proud of my Macy. Dr Michele McMaster Open 7 days Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place ph: 338 2534 e. mcmasterandheap@yahoo.co.nz www.mcmasterheap.co.nz
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Page 3 and 4: Thursday June 16 2022 3 In Brief SU
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Page 9 and 10: Thursday June 16 2022 9 HOME & HEAT
Page 11 and 12: Thursday June 16 2022 11 Classified
Page 13 and 14: Thursday June 16 2022 13 YOUR COAST
Page 15 and 16: Thursday June 16 2022 15 “FEATURE

Pegasus Post: June 16, 2022

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