Waste is an unfortunate reality for the majority of industries, which is why at Diary of a Tile Addict we love to highlight companies and creatives seeking to minimise or re-use waste. The ceramic industry has its own share of waste related issues but Chinese company Bentu Design is determined to highlight this whilst producing a series of functional objects.
Plates, mugs, bowls, and figurines all feature in their Wreck furniture. In a similar style to terrazzo the crushed and fractured ceramics are mixed with concrete, leaving pieces intact to become part of the unique decoration. The resulting look is a rage of largely unidentifiable curves and abstract shapes that look both wholly deliberate and entirely random.
Bentu was founded in 2011 and focused their sites on Chaozhou in eastern China. Being the world’s largest ceramic production location also amounts to being a significant waste creator in that sector. Additionally, with continued globalisation and demand for ceramic items, more and moe factories appeared in Chaozhou. Although many recycling plants have replaced factories, pieces that remain ‘unusable’ still make up the majority of the waste.
And that’s where Bentu comes in, making something beautiful and valuable from the waste, repurposing not only items deemed recyclable, but also those doomed to remain waste for eternity. By producing items that are needed in everyday life, Bentu aim to demonstrate the importance of recycled materials, and the unique objects that they can produce.
The company hasn’t only achieved this with ceramics, but have also sought to repurpose other unlikely materials such as yak dung, soil, and pipes, as well as terrazzo and other surface materials.
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, June 2020.