The author reviews the winners and highly commended students in the Design Innovation in Plastics 2009 student plastics design award. The theme of 'Sustainability' brought 77 entries from which the judges selected six finalists. The winning design for a flatpack set of garden tools and pots cut from a single sheet of polypropylene was by James Ravenhall of Northumbria University. Second was a high visibility tent peg in Makrolon from Bayer MaterialScience, designed by Oliver Woodhouse of Huddersfield University. Highly commended entries included a PullLight by Hannes Simon from Falmouth College which used recycled plastics, gearing from a bicycle and a spinning mechanism from a toy to provide short term illumination off-grid for three or five minutes. Innovative designs and good presentation were the key to success for the six finalists, plus a determined philosophy concerning prototypes to get the product right before release. Design Innovation in Plastics is the longest running plastics design competition in Europe, having been started in 1985.