‘Plastic’ and ‘sustainability’ are not words generally considered in the same sentence… until now, that is! LifestyleGarden® is leading the way in an ethical plastic revolution with its new Nassau furniture collection, powered by Social Plastic®. The transformative use of recycled materials is set to benefit both communities and the natural environment.
Our planet is facing a vast plastic pollution crisis. Recent findings from The Big Plastic Count show that nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging are thrown away by UK households annually. Just 12% is recycled in the UK. The rest builds up in landfill, is burnt, or remains as a blight on our landscapes. Not only that, but it can take up to 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose once discarded.
This is having a significant impact on human health, wildlife, and the natural world. A recent Office for National Statistics survey has found that 75% of adults in Great Britain are worried about the impact of climate change. One step we can all take is cutting back on single-use plastic in our households. Whether it’s choosing purchases with less packaging, remembering to bring reusable bags shopping, or using refill stations for detergents, plenty of small lifestyle changes can create a more significant impact.
But what can we do about the litter that is already on our streets and in our oceans?
LifestyleGarden® has teamed up with partners Plastic Bank and the Eden Project to help address this problem and revolutionise how we treat waste. Their ambition is for a world without ocean plastic. The newly launched range of outdoor furniture – the Nassau collection powered by Social Plastic® – shows the value of discarded materials by transforming plastic waste into worth. It’s plastic, reinvented!
The innovative Nassau furniture collection has been created in a uniquely sustainable way. Plastic waste is stopped from reaching the shorelines by Plastic Bank’s collection community members, reprocessed into Social Plastic® feedstock, and then repurposed by LifestyleGarden® into modern, stylish furniture. The process helps vulnerable coastal communities find a path out of poverty through exchange of plastic waste for secure income, social benefits and access to basic necessities.
This is furniture designed with sustainability at its heart. By giving plastic waste value, it’s bringing abandoned materials back into the supply chain for another lease of life. This helps to reduce pollution, preserve precious resources, save energy, and cut down on the amount of rubbish in our natural environment. Complete traceability of materials and product is guaranteed, along with its impact on local communities and people.
To create the new collection, 220,000kg of waste plastic has already been removed from the environment, preventing the equivalent of 11,000,000 plastic bottles from entering our oceans. Not only that, but the project has also supported more than 400 collection community members by providing a path out of poverty.
Stig Maasbøl, the CEO of LifestyleGarden®, parent company ScanCom International explains:
“This is furniture designed with sustainability and human welfare at its heart. It offers a complete transformation in how furniture is made and fundamentally changes the impact for the better.”
He continues:
“It is a whole story about how to change the world in our industry and make a social and environmental impact at the same time. We hope it encourages other businesses to look at a new, greener way to do things: putting the environment and communities first.”
Plastic Bank Founder, David Katz added:
“If it creates a wave of change, a different way of thinking and being, then we have already begun the renaissance of a world without ocean plastic. The significant environmental and social impact of the Nassau collection means that anyone who chooses the collection will be bringing home the progressive furniture that makes a real difference in the world.”
The new Nassau collection, powered by Social Plastic®, is available to buy from Robert Dyas, via the world-leading environmental charity, Eden Project, and leading garden centres across the country.