Designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón knows that pollution generated by plastic bottles is a problem that affects us on a global level. With his project PET Lamp, he is turning an object with a short and specific lifespan into a product enriched by the cosmogony of the local culture of Columbia.

“In the Summer of 2011, on a visit to Colombia, I was invited to form part of an attractive project focussed on the reuse of plastic bottles PET. Hélène Le Drogou, psychologist and activist concerned with the plastic waste that contaminates the Colombian Amazon, invited me to give my point of view as an industrial designer on this problem.

As part of a group of creatives involved in this project, I could see that the pollution generated by the plastic bottles that we use every day is a problem that affects us on a global level. It was because of this that I decided to develop a project that would provide answers, from a design viewpoint, to this global issue.

The way we addressed this problem was to combine it with an ancient artisan resource: the textile tradition. Thus, my idea was to convert an object with a short and specific lifespan into a product enriched by the cosmogony of the local culture.”

The PET Lamp project was presented at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan last month.

More about things spotted at Milan Furniture fair 2013 here, here and here.