Milan 2010: furniture brand Emeco launched a version of its famous Navy chair made of 111 recycled plastic cola bottles at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last week.

Called 111 Navy Chair, the project is a collaboration between Emeco, known for aluminium furniture, and drinks brand Coca-Cola.

It will be available from June in six colours, including red.

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The information below is from Emeco:

COCA-COLA AND EMECO CREATE ONE-OF-A-KIND CHAIR
MADE FROM 111 RECYCLED PLASTIC BOTTLES

The Coca-Cola Company and Emeco, the leading furniture manufacturer, have combined their iconic products, the Coca-Cola contour bottle package and the famous Navy® Chair, to create a new chair made from at least 111 recycled plastic bottles. The aptly named “111 Navy Chair™” debuts at the 2010 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, one of the top furniture trade shows in the world held in Milan on April 14-19.

Modelled after the original aluminium Emeco Navy Chair (#1006) 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 fibre for strength. It is estimated that more than three million PET plastic bottles will be repurposed annually for the production of 111 Navy Chairs.

Liz Lowe, Citizenship Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain said: “This beautiful 111 Navy Chair reinforces Coca-Cola’s commitment to sustainability. This innovative project is part of our vision to recover and reuse all of our bottles and cans and another example of how our packaging can have real value through recycling to be used again and again.”

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 through a partnership between The Coca-Cola Company and United Resource Recovery Corp.

The chairs will be available for sale in June 2010. In Great Britain they will be stocked exclusively by the Conran Shop until September 2010 and available at their two London stores. 111 Navy Chairs are available in six colours: Coca-Cola Red, Snow, Flint, Grass, Persimmon and Charcoal.

Gregg Buchbinder, Chairman of Emeco said: “When Coca-Cola approached me with this project I jumped on it. Although reengineering a core product is a significant investment for us, I was excited about the impact of reusing the PET from about three million plastic bottles a year. That’s a lot of bottles and a lot of chairs. The new chair is the strongest and most beautiful we can make. We’ve turned something many people throw away into something you want and can keep for a long, long time.”

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. The rPET merchandise line is just one of many sustainability initiatives by The Coca-Cola Company and is a testament to the Company’s long history in innovation.