Remoulding new life into old tyres

Remoulding new life into old tyres 

Herald Review August 10, 2014  

Anu Tandon Vieira upcycles discarded tyres and other industrial waste to produce beautiful furniture pieces writes LISA ANN MONTEIRO


Where others see trash, Mumbai based designer Anu Tandon Vieira sees beauty. Her perspective is refreshing in 21st century India where the use and throw culture is popular.

Vieira gives new life to old discarded tyres. Together with migrant skilled cane and bamboo weavers she weaves over tyres with ropes made from recycled textile and plastic wrapper waste to produce vibrant, one of a kind furniture pieces.

Tyres take a good 30,000 years to disintegrate and with cars getting cheaper, the problem at dumps is only getting bigger. Once Vieira’s team of weavers set their hands on discarded tyres, they cease being a reject piece of nuisance and add value to one’s life. “ There’s no way you wouldn’t want them in your environment,” she says.

She has as part of her Retyrement Plan collection comfortable and fashionable pouffes, ottomans, lounge chairs, tables. To this rather unusually recycled pieces of furniture, she will soon be adding a range of swings and hammocks.

She is happy to customize and share the functioning of retyrement plan with anyone who is interested.

The migrant skilled craftsmen from Bengal, Assam and Bihar often earn a pittance, garnering little or no value for their work. Cheaper and trendier products from South East Asia only make their plight worse.

One of Vieira’s aims in her Retyrement Plan is to support and work with these craftsmen so that they don’t go looking for unskilled work. “ There are plenty of malls coming up and instead of slaving in an uncomfortable environment, they prefer working as liftmen and watchmen.” Her priority is to see that the weavers receive good wages. “ I’d rather say, get me this price than eat into their earnings. It’s my responsibility to find a market for the products. If it takes them four days to make a lounge chair, I don’t ask that they do it within two days. I wouldn’t want them to suffer because if they do, then they will cut corners in design.” There are enough designers out there who work in air- conditioned environments that don’t make a difference to anyone. “ If I can sustain even five families of weavers I will feel like I’ve accomplished something,” she said.

Vieira’s project is only a year and a half old and while many are still warming up to the idea, she has been getting enquiries from Australia and Scandinavia. Once she educates potential clients about the thought and effort behind the project, appreciation pours in.

The thoroughly washed and sanitized tyres are treated before they are upscaled. But she still has to deal with people who turn their noses up, saying they cannot have waste sitting in their house. This is a mindset she is working on changing.

A fine arts graduate with a specialization in sculpture and a post graduate degree in textile design, Vieira has been working on a wide array of projects as a freelance designer and consultant since 1989.

She has worked on the restoration and refurbishment of palaces in Udaipur, ventured into art direction for feature films and also created textiles for the international market. All through her career she has always had a fascination for working with mundane material, mostly plastic strapping, carton wrapping, leather scrap and other industrial waste.

The trick is getting to the discarded items before they are dumped in a landfill. “ The scrap from manufacturing playing cards is beautiful and can be used to weave into baskets but once this travels to the dump it is lost.” It is never waste if it is segregated and reused.

She sees no great relevance in making lampshades from plastic spoons or flowers from plastic bottles.

These are merely cosmetic and don’t make a real difference she says.

Her designs are sold at Paper Boat Collective and 6 Assagao, a branch of People Tree. She has plans of bringing her retirement plan to Goa one day.

She hopes her upscaled products can one day go full circle when auto industries integrate them into their lives as part of their social responsibility. Review Bureau