WHAT IF…glass waste on Zanzibar could become a valuable asset? That is the question a team of Dutch designers is taking on as part of their new bottle-up foundation by upcycling glass waste from this increasingly popular tourist designation.

This brand new foundation is currently revealing its very first result during upcoming Dutch Design Week 2015 (DDW2015) in Eindhoven. The resulting designs include seven products made out of the glass waste tourists leave behind on Zanzibar.

The bottle-up project is an initiative of Hubert & Elisabeth van Doorne and the Dutch Design Week organisation. During the DDW, from 17 until 25 October, the project is part of the exhibition ‘It’s your world – It’s your trash’, in the Klokgebouw on Strijp-S in Eindhoven. The exhibition tells the story behind bottle-up, the development process, the products and the follow-up.

About Bottle-Up
Welcome to Zanzibar, tropical island on the coast of East Africa. In recent years, tourists have become an increasingly important source of income, as well as (glass) waste. A glass of wine with dinner and cocktails on the beautiful beach are part and parcel of the tropical experience for island visitors. Zanzibar is not yet equipped to process or recycle all this glass waste, which means that the glass ultimately makes its way into the beautiful natural surroundings. But what if the tourism that caused this glass waste could also contribute to processing it? Six young Dutch designers travelled to Zanzibar in September to up-cycle the glass waste.

During the trip they worked together with local craftsmen to translate smart solutions and local techniques into a first series of beautiful products. Close the cycle, upwards!

Offering the products to tourists on the island completes the circle: the waste caused by tourism is transformed into beautiful, locally produced up-cycle products, whereby the tourists that buy the products directly finance the next step: the development of construction materials made from glass waste. The product line is just the first step towards a cleaner island: the income generated by the products will be directly invested in the development of more constructive solutions for processing glass. After all, only a relatively small proportion of the total amount of glass waste can be used to make these products. The goal is to process large amounts of glass waste into construction materials that can be used on the island.

Bottle-Up Design Team
The bottle-up project is an initiative of Hubert & Elisabeth van Doorne and Dutch Design Week.

The first team of designers to plunge wholeheartedly into this up-cycling task consists of:
Sophie Mensen and Oskar Peet – Studio OS & OOS
Klaas Kuiken – Studio Klaas Kuiken
Tom van Soest and Ward Massa – Stonecycling
Pim van Baarsen en Luc van Hoeckel – Super Local

More about this initiative here.