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Activities & workshops / INDIA
The Tetra Pak upcycling story began in 2010 during the Litter free Auroville (LFA) campaign in Auroville, South India. A group of young adults had the idea to create a campaign with the aim of promoting sustainable waste management and creating awareness on waste and its negative impacts. The event was a huge success with community members actively participating and showing great enthusiasm. A key question that arose from the campaign asked what can be done with Tetra Paks? They are difficult to recycle because they are composed of six different layers that include plastic, paper and aluminium. Because of the infrastrucutre needed to separate these layers and enable Tetra Paks to be recycled, upcycling represents one of the few viable alternatives to them ending up in landfills. The Upcycling Studio thus proposed the idea of using two Tetra Paks and placing one within the other to create a strong, lightweight brick filled with air. The first item produced by furniture designer Marc was a stool, rendered stronger and more durable through the addition of recycled papier mâché. Finding local solutions are one of the key approaches necessary to ensure the upcycling process is cost-effective, inclusive, collaborative and does not lead to adverse environmental impacts through waste transport. Another key to successful upcycling is the use of clean, 99