Filter Factory
2013
Recycled cigarette filters
Filter Factory is a stament on the littering behaviour of smokers. An average smoker throws every year 2.5 kilo of cigarette ends on the street. Birds eat these cigarette ends because they consider them to be food. As a result they die.
On the other hand, birds are smart and use the filters in their nests. Because the filters are made out of a synthetic fiber, they keep the eggs warm. Besides, the nicotine keeps leeches out of the nest, so the little chicks don’t die.
It is my aim to make smokers aware of their littering behaviour and reward them for their good behaviour instead of punishing them for bad behaviour. When throwing your cigarette end in the machine, it is being shredded and the counter runs. Every three hundredth cigarette, a door pops open and the lucky smoker can take a birdhouse home with him.
The birdhouses are being made in some sort of big waffle iron. The shredded cigarette filters are being melted in the waffle iron and thus being shaped into a birdhouse.
Cigarette Textile
2016
Recycled cigarette filters
Commissioned by The City of Leeuwarden and Welcome to the Village
Continuing the Filter Factory I created a yarn out of cigarette filters. Using that yarn I made a hat and a scarf. The goal of Cigarette textile is to make smokers aware of their littering behaviour. Proving that recycled filters have potential to be used as much more than trash, we hope that smokers think twice before throwing away their smoked peck. The filters are ground and then spun into yarns. With these yarns we have knitted a hat and a scarf, which is currently travelling in a mobile display cabinet through the city of Leeuwarden.
