Herman Miller’s Iconic Aeron Chair Gets Eco-Friendly Upgrade with Ocean Plastic

One of the renowned office chairs, Herman Miller’s Aeron chair is getting an eco-friendly update with the infusion of ocean plastic. Designed in 1994, the Aeron chair was specially curated for people who spend most of their day sitting in their offices. Even after years, the Aeron is still Herman Miller’s top-selling chair and now it is getting a major upgrade.

As the company is using as much as 2.5 pounds of recycled, ocean-bound plastics, each Aeron chair will feature about 114 plastic water bottles. This initiative is a great way of diverting a huge amount of plastic waste from ending up in the oceans.

Herman Miller is using these reclaimed plastics to make 100 percent of two major chair parts – its nylon back frame and its tilt covers beneath the seat that house adjustment mechanisms.

Image: Herman Miller

Sure, 2.5 pounds of plastic is not that big an amount, however, these updates to the Aeron chairs can save 150 tons of plastic from ending up in oceans annually.

Director of Sustainability at Herman Miller, Gabe Wing, said;

Every year, an estimated eight million tons of plastic enter the ocean. This is roughly equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute…The idea is that little things add up. We’re trying to create a market for waste materials…demonstrating you can use them, and put them in premium products.

Once the ocean-bound plastic is collected, it is ground, washed and pelletized. Thereafter, it is sold to manufacturers for testing and re-engineering the plastic to include in the products. The plastic incorporated in Aeron is being sourced from India and Indonesia, along with a few others.

The revamping of the famous chair with upcycled plastic waste is truly a remarkable way to avert this non-degradable material from ending up in our oceans, where it poses grave danger to all life.

Via: Fast Company