Designer behind the PET Lamp on giving plastic waste a new life and struggling artisans a helping hand

How did the PET Lamp project come about? “It started in Colombia in 2011. I was on holiday with friends who were doing a project on plastic bottles in the Amazon River. The problem in those countries is enormous because there’s no infrastructure for recycling. The heavy rains wash all of the plastic waste into the river and then it ends up in the ocean.

“They were a group of creative people – an artist, an architect, landscape designers – and they wanted a product designer to [propose] an answer [to the plastic pollution problem]. I thought about reusing the plastic bottles instead of recycling them, transforming the object rather than breaking it down.”

Why was it important to you that PET Lamps were made locally? “What we wanted to achieve with the project was combining this global product, the plastic bottle, with the crafts technique of basket weaving.”

How did you find your artisans? “In 2012, we went back to Colombia and we were sponsored by Coca-Cola and supported by Artesanías de Colombia, a local company that supports local craftspeople. They introduced us to a group

of artisans.”

How has PET Lamp changed communities? “We always work with groups of people who are in difficult situations. In Colombia, we worked with weavers who were displaced by the guerilla war. They were moved from their hometown, in the middle of the jungle, and suddenly found themselves in Bogotá, a city of 10 million people. They had no tools but they carried with them a lot of knowledge, which could have been lost. Through this project we allow them to carry on doing what they know, but in a big city.