14 DAY TRIAL // The upcoming Tokyo Chair City Exhibition, opening on September 23rd in Japan, will house a display of 50 "111 Navy Chairs", with each leg of the chairs using recycled PET materials from 111 bottles of Coca-Cola.
As an official supplier, the Japanese division of Coca-Cola will provide approximately 25,000 bottles of Coca-Cola system products to participants and others at the UIA.
The 111 Navy Chairs will be displayed at all entrances to Tokyo Chair City exhibitions being held at eight venues in five buildings. In addition, 26 of the 111 Navy Chairs will be used in place of the regular chairs in CAFE EASE located on the first floor of the Marunouchi Building.
The rPET content in each chair is sourced from the world's largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant that began operation in 2009 in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the United States.
"The 111 Navy Chair is a reflection of our commitment to sustainability, constant innovation and originality in design," said Kate Dwyer, Group Director, Worldwide Licensing, The Coca-Cola Company. “It is another step in our vision to recover and reuse all of our bottles and cans."
Modeled after the original aluminium Emeco Navy Chair designed in 1944 for the U.S. Navy, each 111 Navy Chair contains a mix of 60 percent rPET plastic (recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic) and a special combination of other materials including pigment and glass fiber for strength.
It is estimated that more than three million PET plastic bottles will be re-used annually for the production of 111 Navy Chairs.
Coca-Cola first launched rPET merchandise in 2007 as a way to inspire people to recycle by showing them how PET bottles can be transformed into products for everyday use.
rPET merchandise includes fashionable t-shirts, bags, caps, notebooks and now a chair made of recycled plastic bottles. Each item indicates the number of plastic bottles used to create it.