From trash to treasure – PET lamps from Colombia

Confronted with an increasing problem of plastic waste in the Colombian Amazon, product designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón was invited to work with a team of artisans to create a reuse concept for plastic bottles. The result, a series of hand crafted pendant lights, combines a modern day staple, namely plastic soda bottles, with the ancient craft of textile weaving.

Clusters of lights run from one common power source and can include as many fixtures as the project requires.

The colorful textile cables are specifically created for PET Lamp and become an integral part of the design.

The base of the plastic bottle is cut into vertical strips and contrasting strips of straw, leather or fabric are selected to be woven into the plastic.

In the end a simple bulb assembly is added and voila, a unique light fixture that makes use of non-degradable plastics, offers Colombian artisans a new income source and looks fabulous.

The concept was launched at Milan Furniture Fair in April of 2014 in collaboration with Coca Cola.

For the Slide Share on the entire process have a look below or see petlamp.org for details.