Upcycling Pavilion

“Since plastic has become an essential part of life, the world is producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic each year which is a significant amount. Sri Lanka annually imports around 9600 tons of raw plastic to utilize it on manufacturing, packaging and for much more.

The downside of this is that plastic is one of the major reasons environmental pollution is happening and plastic pollution in the marine environment alone is estimated to be around million tons, with nearly 1.5 million tons ending up in the ocean annually. Out of 70% of the imported plastics is used in Sri Lanka only 40% is sent back for recycling.

At the Architect 2019 exhibition organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects, launched at the BMICH on 21st of February, the second-year students of the City School of Architecture or the Studio 2 of (CSA) presented a novel, creative and productive solution to all the used plastic waste remains.

Their ‘Upcycling Pavilion’ is a truss structure constructed using nearly 30,000 thrown away plastic bottles, and the structure is constructed by joining two plastic bottles base to base in order to make triangular pyramids joined by a self- designed joining element held in place by a nylon cord.

“what we created was something unique because usually, people consider plastic waste as something disgusting and garbage. But this idea derived when we came to BMICH and saw lots of plastic bottles lying around. Then we thought it would be a great material to experiment with.”

“After going through several stages of experimenting on how we could use the plastic bottles as a structural material, we could come up with this structure because a ‘truss’ is one of the strongest methods that can be utilised to make any structure.”

The team had spent nearly two months for this project and collecting 800 bottles on average daily for over four weeks. Before putting them into a structure all the bottles were cleaned, cut and bouthed.

“This whole project was a challenge, since this was something totally new and was based on our own experiments and calculations. It was a tough process to build a structure that expands up to 50 ft and we had to spend nearly 5 hours to lift this up.”

The project made us aware of the amount of plastic waste disposed by various organisation when we went around to collect them.

“But, I think all the troubles were worth it because we, as a batch was able to face the challenges and most importantly to create the public awareness that even litter which is vulnerable and futile could be used in such a way it still looks beautiful and useful at the end of the day.”

Upon dismantling the structure, all the bottles used were taken to the recycling plant in partnership with the popular beverage and recycling company.” (Source : News Paper - www.sundaytimes.lk)