A colorful carpet, a tree full of wishing bottles, and a flower house. When light penetrates into the pop-up story shop on Shanghai’s Yuyuan Road, a garden built from plastic waste greets the visitors.

Taking up an area of around nine square meters, the story shop has been decorated with objects made from recycled plastics. In the current exhibition called “World Without Waste: Rebuild the Garden”, visitors and nearby residents on Yuyuan Road will be able to see how plastic bottles are professionally processed to form granules, threads and fabrics, and are then “transformed” into fashionable bags and sweaters. Bottle caps can be turned into a creative table-top collage. There is also a square carpet made up of 280 recycled bottle caps, and a canvas bag called “24 Bag” as it is made from 24 recycled plastic bottles. When every 24 of such bags have been sold, it can afford a tent in disaster-stricken areas.

(A tree of wishing bottles)

(The recycling journey of beverage bottles)

The exhibition contains three parts to recount the recycling journey of beverage bottles. It is the first time for many visitors to see the plastic flakes, pellets, and spinning threads from recycled beverage bottles.

(The “24 Bag” made from recycled plastic bottles)

“It’s a surprise that beverage bottles can be made into so many fun items,” said a nearby resident who came to visit the exhibition. She was amazed by the card bag and iPad bag made from rPET material.

The exhibition, lasting from Dec. 11 to 17, is open to the public for free at the story shop. It was initiated by Shanghai Shen-Mei Beverage and Food Company and all the products on display are creations of Coca-Cola’s “World Without Waste” initiative, which champions the use of recycled plastic for sustainable development. The reason why the initiator is holding the exhibition in the story shop is they want the initiative and wish for methods to achieve a better low-carbon future to be recorded as stories.