Chrysalis

Long description

Changing the global impact of plastics from extraction to disposal, requires us to take a different look at existing recycling processes and create design interventions to increase the value, range of possible applications and perception of recycled plastic.

Some plastic products, like PET bottles are increasingly recycled into new high-quality products. Post-consumer HDPE, however, is mostly downcycled for low-quality and low value applications, if recycled at all. The amount of recycled HDPE used in industry is just a fraction of the total use of virgin HDPE.

We believe it is necessary for designers to interfere in the industrial production chain and explore the role we can play to make real environmental and social impact. We don’t want to design the next “sustainable” wannahave. We want to find different value in the use of waste plastics from a design perspective, in an interdisciplinary collaboration with industry (recyclers and producers).

In Project Chrysalis, we work with a research lab to develop high-quality recycled yarns for closed-loop textile products out of HDPE sourced from household waste. We draw on our experience designing with waste plastic, working with recyclers, traditional textile artisans and industrial textile producers in the Netherlands, Mexico and Japan.

Supported by the Dutch Creative Industry Fund, we’ve been able to conduct experimental research and small production runs in the lab to prove our concept. The next step would be to scale up from the lab. The No Waste Challenge could get us there.

Additional Images