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BEIRUT 2023
THIS PROJECT IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN
ZIAD ABI CHAKER, THE CREATOR OF THE RECYCLED BENCHES AND JOHANNE ISSA, THE ARTIST WHO PAINTED THE BENCHES.
A BENCH FOR TWO | JOHANNE ISSA
When you sit on a bench, you are never alone.
It is either a moment of introspection or a shared space with a companion, or even a stranger.
This same thought came to mind when I started painting the benches.
How can I paint one color on a bench without thinking about the presence of two?
It's a dialogue between colors, a conversation with our thoughts or the other.
And it's the inevitable encounter between the viewer and the space.
BENCHES FROM RECYCLED PLASTIC | ZIAD ABI CHAKER
The material used to manufacture these benches is 100% recycled single use plastics:
the plastic that is "deemed" unrecyclable. Not only did we find a way to recycle this type of plastic but we also manufactured all the necessary equipment to do it locally.
Along the way, we figured that every time we recycle 1 kilogram of these plastics we divert the equivalent of 153 supermarket bags and we offset 2 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
These 3 benches and their corresponding planting pots weigh 70 Kilos each thus diverting in total the equivalent of 32,130 supermarket bags from the landfill and offsetting 420 Kilograms of carbon dioxide.
We are now paving the road to a whole new plastic recycling industry which will make these plastic beams, used not only in making outdoor furniture but also all types of outdoor fixtures like vertical greenwalls, street recycling bins, beach garbage bins, solar panels chassis...the applications are endless and will ensure that these plastics are no longer discarded on our seashores and in our forests and rivers or even incinerated creating ultra toxic fumes.
