P.E.T.Panel by Ki Young Kwon from korea

This proposal deals with the possibility of how daily abandoned material can be re-used environmentally in the urban space. We take note that the percentage recycled of the empty PET bottles are only 23%. Our proposal will not only promote more recycling of the bottles, but also has the potential to gradually replace the installations already established in the city, by adapting to a new installation that helps empty PET bottles to be used for other purposes. With these, it can save the energy and resources needed to produce the existing material, ultimately expanding the lifetime of the PET bottle, now re-functioned, radically transformed, and immersed in the city as environmental materials.

We first set up panels that can be combined with PET bottles on a bus stop billboard, one of the public spaces. This panel, the size of a billboard frame, contains holes of screw type shapes where a PETbottle can be inserted. When inserted, it fixes the empty bottles even in an upright position.

Next, the wasted bottles are filled on the panel of the billboard by the self-activity of the public. It is filled on one side of the billboard and completed as a collection; this method, in terms of recycling, is both easier and visually pleasing, making the recycling process much simpler and more convenient.

This panel plays a role not only in helping to ease the environmental pollution by raising the low recycle rates of PET bottles, but also in creating an urban public work of art made by direct participation of the public. The light from the billboard is transmitted into the holes of the panels at night. The random insertion of PET bottles with various forms result in multifarious patterns and illuminations that decorate the city at night.

The panel that is complete with PET bottles is then separated from the billboard frame. The panel can then be repositioned horizontally and be placed in various places, from school garden to private terraces. The people then place soil and seeds in the holes of the panel.

This progress could be manifested through the means of educational curriculum, or personal leisures. The panel could result as a flowerbed of public space, or a standing display decorating private terrace while the plants are being cultivated.

If the plants are fully grown, the panel ultimately is stood up again. Union of two panels makes one unit of soundproofing wall; the modules are created so that two panels can fit between each faces. The completed soundproofing wall is then put between two H-beams that are same width as that of the billboard. Through this process, the soundproofing walls on the streets are permanently set up and replaced by the green PET panel. This will drown out the clamor and become part of the city as a greenscape.

We designed an eco-friendly soundproofing wall with a simple, sustainable idea that reduces discarded PET bottles by fixating them into a panel and installing them into urban spaces. The necessity of the public hand and their active participation in completing the soundproofing wall, naturally teaches a lesson of the advantage of recycling and reusing materials. Their participation in nursing the plants will eventually and very hopefully lead to a greener city.
We assert that the PET bottles, which play a great role in the environmental pollution today, can be converted into something that benefits the society, and may contrastingly remunerate the polluted city. The various results of PET Panels will manifest a more aesthetically pleasing, academically motivating, as well as less air and noise-polluted society, thereby creating a far pleasant urban environment to the people.