RECYCLED PET
The breakthrough for plastic came in the 1950s when it became cheap and easy to produce. The material saw great success with an exponential increase in production as it became a material used everywhere. As a result we are left with a growing abundance of plastic waste that can take an estimated 500-1000 years to fully break down. However, by using only recycled plastic, we take an inherently unsustainable material bound for the landfill and turn it into something smarter and better.
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is one of the most common types of plastics, often used to create plastic fibers for textiles and bottles. If injection molded, like with our 111 Navy chair, a significant amount of time and e!ort has to go into the special technique and formula used to turn it into a structurally sound object.
We see the opportunity in the problem of waste PET, creating a new chair using a smart new material made from recycled plastic bottles. Every weekday ten truckloads of PET bales consisting more than 20,000 bottles arrive for processing to the recycling plant. These bottles are sorted, ground, and washed to become the primary material used in our 111 Navy Chair. Each individual chair is made of 4 Kg of rPET plastic pellets or approximately 111 plastic bottles. The material is then mixed with glass fiber to give the chair its incredible strength. Since its launch in 2010, we’ve kept over 7 million plastic bottles out of the landfill, and that number is growing everyday.
GRINDING & WASHING
20,000 bottles are taken every weekday, sorted, grinded, and washed to create rinse flakes.
ROASTING & ETCHING
The rinse flakes are roasted via a patented process to remove volatile organic content. Outer layers are then etched to remove impurities.
MELTING & FORMING
The flakes are mixed with glass fiber and non-toxic color before being melted down and injected into a mold. After loading the mold, the chair is formed, hollowed out by gas injection, tempered and cooled.