Space Available x Peggy Gou
We partnered with our good friend, DJ and record producer Peggy Gou, to recycle and redesign plastic waste from Java, Indonesia – the world’s second biggest plastic polluter.
Our aim is to build awareness around the plastic pollution crisis and inspire change through circular design and culture. Together, we created a record chair.
WHY WASTE PLASTICS?
Plastic is everybody’s problem. Regardless of whether or not you use or purchase single-use plastic products, they continue to suffocate our lands and our waterways at an alarming rate. It’s estimated that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic debris in our ocean alone.
Recycling waste plastic not only helps to detox waterways and landfills, but creates further awareness on the environmental issues we’re facing as a world.
Our Peggy chair is made from post-consumer HDPE plastic products collected from Javanese landfills, rivers and beaches. It’s our hope that by transforming this waste into an item with a purpose, we can help relieve a small but significant part of the world from the implications of deteriorating plastics.
This project also encourages us to rethink the word ‘waste’. By giving these plastics a new life, they are transformed from discarded items to useful materials that enhance our lives in a more sustainable way. That’s not to say we are glorifying plastic as a material. We are simply making the best of a challenging situation – using human creativity to create something lasting and beautiful out of what could have been deemed wasted.
COLLABORATING FOR THE COLLECTIVE
This project was made possible by many hands and minds.
We created the concept with the help of Peggy Gou who, just like us, is deeply drawn to the fields of circular living, music and design. “I realise that we are all part of the problem,” she says, “ but we can all be part of the solutions too.”
The idea came from Gou’s love of records and chairs. “But it doesn’t only have to be only a record chair, it could also be a book, it could be anything. And it’s so beautiful and if you can make something that’s useful, especially in my environment where I always need record shelves and chairs, why not?”
Our recycled plastic material comes courtesy of Syukriyatun Niamah from Indonesian circular furnishings firm, Robries. Niamah and her team collect waste plastic and repurpose it into the strong, durable and strikingly beautiful HDPE slabs that make up each Peggy Chair.
Avalon Carpenter and the artisans of Kalpataru hand-craft each product at their family-run studio in Bali, Indonesia.
We believe in making space for nature. 20% of the profits from this collection are donated to our official partners, The Sumatran Orangutan Society, helping regenerate Indonesian forests and protect endangered orangutans.
Materials: Upcycled post-consumer HDPE plastics
Source: Bali and Java, Indonesia
Impact: 6.320 bottle caps per chair
Produced in Bali, Indonesia
