South Korean DJ Peggy Gou co-creates plastic chair made from trash

DJ Peggy Gou and Daniel Mitchell have teamed up to create chairs crafted from 20kg of plastic trash in Indonesia.

Gou is a Berlin-based DJ who owns the Gudu Records, while Mitchell formerly founded design studio Space Available in Bali.

According to Dezeen, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mitchell witnessed massive volumes of trash in the streets and rivers. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. During Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival last year, Mitchell revealed his role to clean the plastic waste from the Bali beach.

The chair is made from recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) packaging that came from the island of Java. Gou melted the plastic by hand to create the spiraling pattern. 

Gou added an under-seat storage feature to store vinyl records.

The chair’s design does not use screws, staples, or glue to attach its parts. Instead, the chair’s parts are fused together ensuring zero waste. When it is broken or no longer useful, it can be easily recycled again with no ‘foreign’ parts.

Indonesia reportedly produces 6.8 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, but just 10 per cent of it can be recycled.

As the creative director of Bali hotel and beach club Potato Head, Mitchell will raise the profile of the plastic chair concept by installing them at the Bali hotel and beach club Potato Head, of which he is the creative director.