Redundant armour plates from old-style stab-resistant body armour have been recycled into a dazzling variety of items in a project designed to cut down on waste.
The armour-based prototype creations of 25 design students are currently on display at Police National Headquarters (PNHQ), before returning to Massey University for display from Friday 1 September.
Opening the temporary exhibition at PNHQ, Commissioner Andrew Coster said it was an exciting concept, diverting a non-decomposable product “into more beneficial, more appropriate uses” and contributing to reducing Police’s carbon footprint.
Body armour is made to be hard to damage – which is great when it’s protecting its wearer but becomes a major headache when disposing of it.
“The standard practice globally for getting rid of armour plate is to dig a hole and bury it,” says Inspector Geoff Logan, Operations Manager in Operational Capability.
“We’ve got three tonnes of Kevlar armour awaiting disposal, so we thought ‘There has to be a better way’.”
The question was presented to third-year Industrial Design students at Massey University’s School of Design in Wellington as a compulsory project.
“They were each given two hard armour plates and two sets of soft armour and told ‘Here you are – make something with this’,” says Geoff.
Prototype examples of the afterlife we didn't know Kevlar had, including a frame bag for bikes, a folding seat and shin pads.
The students had six weeks to research, design and build items. Their products demonstrated an awesome degree of creativity and skill, from a sunglasses case to furniture.
“This is something we’re very happy to be involved with,” says Associate Professor Lyn Garrett, Subject Director Industrial Design at Massey. "We really appreciate our relationship with Police.
“The students took the project and the materials into places we just weren’t expecting.”
Commissioner Coster said he appreciated the School of Design’s willingness to partner with Police to help find positive alternatives for redundant armour.
“I think there’s also a cultural benefit for us and for students at the school, which is we can engage with a group of people from different backgrounds and different outlooks on a common project and I think there’s a lot of learning on both sides.”
Some of the items are artistic - such as design student Le Vu's concertinaed table light fitting, pictured above, and Cass Everard's space divider, pictured below, left – but most are intensely practical.
Some are Police-specific and follow consultation with Police staff. These include a bespoke first aid kit to fit the available space in our Škoda vehicles; fold-away road cones; and a stationery folder designed to meet investigators’ needs.
Others include a folding stool; sports shoes and shinpads; bags; hats; packaging for fragile objects; a comfort blanket; dog harness; pest control bait station; cycle mudguards; an extra-strong stretcher for larger patients; and much more.
More of the students' designs, including a lattice wall space divider, a section of the stretcher designer to support heavier patients, and a shoulder bag.
As well as helping Police reduce waste, the project may aid the students’ careers – there is interest in some designs from Police Procurement, and other agencies that might enable commercial production have been invited to view the prototypes.
“Part of this project is to connect the students with people who can progress their design to commercial reality,” says Geoff. “If there’s an ongoing demand we’ll know where to send our old armour on an ongoing basis.”
Police has a long association with Massey’s School of Design, with an MOU in place since 2017.
In the past Police and Massey have collaborated on projects including design of a new dog pod for Police vehicles and the uniform hijab, which made headlines around the world.
Operational Capability has also created an intern position for a Massey undergraduate, currently held by a Fashion Design student looking into future uniform initiatives.
Separately, Operational Capability has been looking at ways of reducing waste from redundant uniforms and equipment.
This has included recycling initiatives which started four years ago with a process to reuse Police buttons. Retired Police jerseys have been repurposed into blankets, and potential uses for other obsolete items are being investigated.
Meanwhile, used but still usable items such as boots, forage caps, high-vis and jerseys are donated to Pacific police forces.