Glass – the ultimate reuseable material

Glass is definitely one of those special materials, which we not only use on a daily basis, but which we truly connect with. It’s the foremost packaging material that people feel inspired to save, re-use, collect and display. Many people also use glass as an integral part of their home design, and just like the saying “home is where the heart is”, many people feel a real connection with the material.

Friends of Glass recently came across the TRASH Surface Bureau, an innovative upcycling lab based in London, who reuse local materials to create high end materials and applications, with glass being one of their favourite materials to work with.

Collected glass bottles are brought to their glass laboratory to be graded into powder, fine, medium, and coarse. These grades are reused to produce strong, weatherproof products such as lights, flooring, furniture and many, many more.

Diana Simpson, the founder of the company, says: “The reason I decided to use glass as the first material to focus on is because it does not lose its qualities during both recycling and the casting process we use at our upcylcing lab. Also, because of its natural texture, it is ideal for flooring solutions, and because of its translucency, it is also a great material for lighting and under-lit applications.”

Diana is currently finishing an installation for Veolia UK’s London offices, where she has taken the symbol of the iceberg to create a series of white structures and lights using clear glass waste. We’re looking forward to seeing the end result.