2020 Edition

My name is Lisanne Kamphuis, twenty-three years old and in my 4th year of Product Design at the University for Arts in Utrecht. Over the past two years, I have been learning more and more about the plastics industry, in addition to the fact that I have also had this from home. My father has been in the Plastic industry for 29 years himself, so from my younger years I went along a lot to open days, etc. From that moment on I was already interested. From this fascination, it soon became clear to me that I wanted to delve into the plastic waste stream.

That is why i also started last year building my own plastic injection machine. This to melt plastic waste and to investigate different forms. I have discovered that much more is possible with this secondary material than is currently the case. After performing many tests and combining different processing techniques, I created a process myself. By using a self-made machine in combination with an oven and self-produced press molds, I started to process this secondary material into objects that we encounter every day in our lives. These solid vases consist entirely of our daily plastic waste.

Because of this I learned that I am busy developing a new material. The combination of processing techniques has created a material that cannot be traced back to plastic waste.
In addition, I see re-creating the added value of plastic as an important objective and a major challenge. Creating value again – not just socially responsible, but also aesthetically. By playing with the eye of the consumer, I can bring the line of thought towards plastic waste back to a completely unbiased picture. This gives the material a new life and therefore a new human and social value. I try to show this undefined beauty.

These vases are inspired by the commotion about our plastic waste. It is a way to show in our daily households that our plastic waste is a source of beauty and can undergo many ways of recycling. These vases are made entirely from plastic waste (polypropylene). The pattern and color compositions depends completely on what plastic waste comes in. every vase is produced with three kilos of plastic waste.