Recycled PlayStations Have Front-Row Seat in Reee Chair Design

Game consoles have a shelf life of about a year or two, given the public's insatiable hunger for state-of-the-art electronics.

Yet, rather than let the discarded units pile up in some landfill somewhere, a small UK-based sustainable design consultancy has established a materials source and created a manufacturable design that transforms unwanted Sony PlayStations into sleek, ergonomic chairs.

The Reee chair from Pli Design Ltd.

got its start on a small scale when Pli Designs was engineering a sustainable chair for the Eden Project, a massive greenhouse and environmental center in Cornwall, England.

The center wanted to create a closed loop recycling system that would transform recycled plastic cups used in its restaurants and cafes into seating that could be deployed in the same venues.

Pli delivered 50 chairs using Eden's own plastic materials, and quickly realized it was on to something that could be produced on a much broader scale.