Coca-Cola Turns Old Glass Bottles Into Tableware

I personally love it when something used is turned into something new and exciting, especially when it involves Coca-Cola which I have drunk so much of, I would think the beverage company would give me shares in the business.

Truthfully, it was always a dream of mine to one day own a Coca-Cola bottling plant from which I could make millions and millions of dollars.

Now, of course, my dreams revolve around other supposedly mundane things like flavored lipsticks and chocolate-covered tasty treats... but I guess my dreams have either become more achievable or less achievable or more in line with my old dreams. I guess it all depends on one's point of view.

Regardless... check out the image above. Thanks to the Tokyo-based design studio Nendo, who have teamed up with Coca-Cola, now I can have something to place my puffy, chocolate-covered cinnamon pastries and other delights, as they have released a very pleasant-looking recycled glass tableware made from old glass Coke bottles called Bottleware.

Bottleware is a five-piece collection o serving bowls and dishes blown by glass artisans in Aomori-ken (Aomori Prefecture) in Japan made from 100 per cent recycled classic contour green-tinted bottles from Coca-Cola.

While these iconic bottles are used over and over again by Coca-Cola, when the glass hs deteriorated to the extent it can't be used again for its original purpose, it is taken out of circulation, and in the case of Nendo, is used to create Bottleware.

Nendo says it loves the 'Georgia Green' tint of the glass, and of the distinct fine air bubbles and distortions that are the hallmark of recycled glass and thought that it would be perfect to create the simple forms of dishware to enhance those traits, while still allowing consumers to know just where it originally came from.

Says Nendo:
"Our solution was to create bowls and dishes that retain its distinctive lower shape, as though the top had been sliced off. The dimpling on the bottle base that added to mitigate hot impacts during the production process is not ordinarily a strong visual feature, but it’s a particular characteristic of glass bottles and visible to anyone who picks up the bottle to drink. Keeping these ring-shaped dimples on the base of our bowls and plates also helps to convey important messages about the way that glass circulates between people as it’s made, used and recycled for further use, and about the connections it makes between people in this process."

While also available through Japan's official Coca-Cola store, you can click HERE for list of shops where you can get a set or eight.

Bottleware is so far only a Japan-only kitsch product. And, if anyone was so inclined, it would make a perfect Christmas present for a blogger you might know of.

I'm just saying, is all.

Cheers, and have a Coke and a sweet caramel-stuffed shortcrust pastry,
Andrew Joseph