PET waste is a major environmental concern all over the world. Every society in the world consume larges amounts of plastic, but the very thing that makes it so useful to consumers – durability – is what makes it so hard to dispose of. Plastics outlive it’s consumers, taking more than the average human lifetime to decompose.
In 2011 designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón was invited to take part in a project initiated by Hélène Le Drogou, a psychologist and activist concerned with the plastic waste that contaminates the Colombian Amazon (interestingly sponsored by Coca Cola). Using traditional textile traditions of the local people the creatives heading up this project developed a product that would take full advantage of the long lifespan of PET and give it a new life. The result was the PET lamp which was presented to the marketplace at the prestigious Milan Furniture Fair this year.
