Written by: Caroline Sandberg
There has been a recent addition to the courtyard at the TerraCycle headquarters here in Trenton, N.J. As you may have already seen on this blog, the courtyard was redesigned a couple years ago by our design staff, otherwise known as design junkies. The walls are covered in beautiful graffiti and the space holds tons of recycling and upcycling projects such as picnic tables made from recycled drink pouches and mulch from upcycled flip-flops and wine corks.
Now an incredible, new sculpture has been added to this collection of art. This creation is called the Carden, and it was our CEO Tom’s idea. He wanted to have a big crazy project for his new television show, which was filming during that week and he said he had always wanted an old car back there. Tom approached the design junkies about the idea and the project was executed, design through finish, in only three days!
The sculpture is a combination of tires, an old car, and numerous plants. Darshan Alatar, one of the design junkies who helped make this project a reality said the design team asked for the tires and car from a nearby towing company and got the material for free.
“The towing company even cut the roof off so the car could be a convertible, which meant we could plant a tree in it,” said Alatar. “At first only six or seven people were working on it but by the end, it was International Week here at TerraCycle, so we had about 100 people from TerraCycle’s 22 global offices helping.
Getting the car on top of the tires proved to be a challenge. The team built ramps made of wood and tires so Tom could drive the car into place. However, it was a front wheel drive car, so the car was sliding off the ramps! Everyone helped push the car up the ramps and onto the tires. The design team is sure that the scene should make for good television.
The next project for the ever-changing courtyard is an upcycled awning to go over the chairs and tables.