3.3 Filter Factory

The project Filter Factory was first and foremost a statement about the littering behaviour of smokers. Cigarette ends, especially the filters, are a substantial part of all our street litter. Some birds eat butts because these look like food, others ingest them indirectly because the synthetic fibres of the filters become mixed with other foods. But birds also use butts as building material. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, which has a good heat-insulating effect. Another advantage is that the nicotine from the butts keeps away parasites, such as leeches. On average, 2.5 kilogrammes of cigarette filters end up in the streets per smoker per year. For the project Filter Factory, smokers could deposit their butts in special machines. They saw how their litter was shredded into building material for birdhouses right then and there. A machine that looked like some kind of waffle iron pressed the mixture into birdhouses. After every 300 butts, a door opened and the happy smoker could take a birdhouse home. This way, designer Isaac Monté used the theme of street litter in a statement that on the one hand stimulated smokers to not just throw away their cigarette ends and on the other hand showed that even seemingly useless material can be of value.

-no specific location (NL) 2013

-Isaac Monté

more info: website Isaac Monté