Image Courtesy of Emeco
Sometimes we feel that iconic products have to stay untouched and their design should not be altered. This is not the case however with 111 Navy Chair; to be honest we actually like the fact that through the iconic Navy Chair by Emeco and the iconic plastic bottle of The Coca-Cola Company a new chair was born_ 111 Navy.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
111 Navy Chair is produced by 111 recycled Coca-Cola plastic bottles; the chair debuted during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2010 in Milan. The chair has been modeled after the original aluminum Emeco Navy chair which was designed in 1944 for the U.S. Navy.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
The 111 bottles constitute 60 percent of the rPET plastic used in the construction of this chair. The remaining materials are a combination of colored pigments and glass fiber to ensure the strength and the durability of the finished product. Annually, more than three million PET plastic bottles are expected to be reused for the production of the chair. According to Kate Dwyer, Group Director, Worldwide Licensing, of The Coca-Cola Company “the 111 Navy Chair is a reflection of our commitment to sustainability, constant innovation and originality in design,” and we could only agree with her.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
We should only note that through this design individuals should understand the value of recyclables and commit in an awareness regarding recycling and sustainable living as an everyday way of life. It is in Coca-Cola’s vision to recover and reuse all of their bottles and cans in the future.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
Image Courtesy of Emeco
Image Courtesy of Emeco
Although re-engineering a core product of Emeco might seem awkward at first, Gregg Buchbinder, Chairman of Emeco claims that “when Coca-Cola approached me with this project I jumped on it.” He was excited about the impact of reusing the PET. “The new chair is the strongest, and most beautiful we can make; we’ve turned something many people throw away into something you want and can keep for a long, long time.” This is not the first attempt in creating rPET merchandise; in 2007 The Coca-Cola Company first launched merchandise as a means to motivate people to recycle by transforming a simple object of common everyday use into a sustainable product.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
On April 13, 2010 an opening party of The Coca-Cola Company and Emeco came about in a very iconic way at the Innovation/ Imagination Exhibition at via Tortona 54 to celebrate this collaboration. What a better way than to present the new 111 Navy Chair enclosed in a one – ton refreshing ice cube. In peoples minds ice cubes are associated with the Coca-Cola brand as billions of gallons of coke are poured over ice cubes every single day. British ice sculptor Duncan Hamilton was commissioned to create this stunning ice sculpture which was exhibited from April 14 through April 19, 2010.
The 111 Navy Chair will be available for sale in June 2010 in select retail locations worldwide and can also be ordered from Emeco. The chairs are available in six different colors: Coca-Cola Red, Snow, Flint, Grass, Persimmon and Charcoal.
Image Courtesy of Emeco
