Plastic Rivers is a collection of four rugs created as a result from the shared goal of Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and GAN to raise awareness and combat, through craftsmanship, one of the great global problems of the industrial age: plastic waste

Each rug is a faithful and scaled representation of one of the most polluted and polluting rivers on the planet: Ganges, Yangtze, Indus, and Niger. The rugs are hand-tufted by GAN’s team of local artisans at workshops in India with recycled plastic fibres (100% recycled PET), a material that takes on a new meaning and highlights the paradoxical beauty of its origins: rivers, wonders of nature, which have been converted into landfills that carry thousands of tons of plastic into the oceans. After undergoing an elaborate up-cycling process, plastic threads are transformed and offer a very soft texture -similar to wool-, while providing a high level of resistance and durability.

This project has been longlisted in the sustainable design category of Dezeen Awards 2022.

Designer: Álvaro Catalán de Ocón for Gan

Project: Plastic Rivers