The Waste Refinery Proves That Waste Can Be Quite Precious

Lifestyle, Arts & Culture

The Waste Refinery Proves That Waste Can Be Quite Precious

By Bryan Goh
November 26, 2021

Taking centre stage at the National Design Centre till 16 January 2022, The Waste Refinery proves that well, waste can be quite precious.

According to the Doomsday Clock looming above Union Square in New York City, we have approximately six years to get our act together lest we sink under the sea and sing with sentient crabs and fishes. On the flip side however, some scientists have reported too that this won’t happen, albeit not before 2031.

However, The Waste Refinery — produced by DesignSingapore Council, curated by creative agency Kinetic Singapore and featuring a coterie of works by 20 creatives — proves that whatever we think of as trash can actually, be quite beautiful. Think of it as form meets function: something beautiful, something useful and something that fits neatly into the building blocks of our lives.

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“The Waste Refinery shows how creative ingenuity can benefit communities by diverting waste from landfills and generating new revenue streams, while transforming raw materials into precious objects,” says Mark Wee, Executive Director of Dsg. “We hope that this exhibition at the National Design Centre will inspire visitors to rethink how we prescribe value to objects and aesthetics, and see the endless potential of using design to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle.”

Below, a slideshow of some exhibitions that’ll make you think about what you can do today to make our Earth a much happier place to live on.

Piñatex
Ananas Anam turns pineapple leaves from farmng cooperatives in the Philipines into Piñatex, a vegan leather that can be used for the production of accessories and shoes.

Hans Tan
Titled Striped Ming, Singapore designer and educator Hans Tan has stripped the glaze off unwanted porcelain pieces sourced from thrift stores and old shops before injecting them with new contemporary motifs.

Roger&Sons
Titled The Local Tree Project, every piece made by Roger&Sons uses abandoned trees from the wood down to shavings and sawdust which are turned into fertilisers or packaging materials. Conceived by artist Isabella Ong and architect Tan Wen Jun, each piece if crafted by Roger&Sons themselves.

Zen Teh
With marble, granite and stone sourced from construction sites and factories, artist and educator Zen Teh has turned them into photographic sculptures that juxtaposes themselves against images of idyllic rural Singapore.

Kazuhiro Yamanaka
Kintsungi albeit with coloured resin, Irotsugi by Kazuhiro Yamanaka convinces one to think of the beauty of cracked edges in glass, a reference to the providence of nature if he will.

Space Available
20 kilograms of plastic salvaged from landfills, rivers and the ocean have been turned into a chair titled The Peggy Chair: a joint collaboration between Indonesia-based studio Space Available and Korean DJ Peggy Gou.

Petit Pil
Each piece of garment created by Britain-based clothing brand Petit Pil literally grows with a child: up to seven times their original size. And most importantly, each is made with 100% recycled polyester that can be recycled at the end of their use.

The Waste Refinery is free to the public 9am to 9pm daily at the National Design Centre. Click here too to catch up with our November 2021 issue.