The amount of plastic waste produced in the modern era is staggering, yet innovators across the globe, like leading design studios bureau SLA and Overtrades W, remind us that the waste our lives produce needn’t end up in landfills where it poisons water supplies or accumulates in such great quantities that it forms floating islands in our oceans. As Overtrades W told audiences during Dutch Design Week 2016, “Our global consumption pattern is turning our valuable natural resources into a useless heap of scrap at an enormous speed.”
Therefore, what these pioneering architectural and design outfits are trying to achieve, is the creation of innovative ways for consumers and companies to join forces and combat the increase in global waste through the use of new materials and production methods. With exhibitions built entirely from recycled waste, in this case, plastic waste, they’re putting architectural design, recycling and innovative building methods in front of new audiences with remarkable results.
In the article linked to below, ‘Pretty Plastic Plant’, these two Dutch design studios have pooled their creative resources to deliver a project that produces real building materials from plastic waste. But it does more than show us what can be achieved, it shows us how they achieve it by involving the audience. By allowing visitors to the exhibition to bring their own plastic waste and watch how it’s transformed into a versatile product with real-life applications, they enable us all to experience first-hand just how beautiful recycling can be.