Singapore Airlines Launches Upcycling Project and Competition with SUTD

Singapore Airlines has launched a project through which it will provide parts and materials from retired commercial aircraft to various Singapore-based organisations and selected global retail brands.

The idea is that those parts can then be upcycled and repurposed to create unique retail products and art pieces, which directly support educational institutions, artists, and persons with disabilities.

The first initiative under The Upcycling Project will be a competition organised by SIA and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), that aims to promote awareness about design and upcycling among tertiary and pre-tertiary students in Singapore.

Aircraft parts and materials will also be donated to several educational institutions, which they can use as learning materials for art or design courses.

SIA has also appointed two Singapore-based brand and product consultants, Edwin Low, Founder of Supermama, and Adriana Lim Escaño, Chief Executive Officer of Abry. They will work with SIA to source for local and global retail brands that are keen to repurpose aircraft parts and materials into products such as bags, furniture, fashion apparels and accessories, and service ware.

Local art consultant Jazz Chong, who helms the Ode To Art gallery, will work with SIA to select Singapore-based artists and sculptors who will create unique art pieces using the upcycled materials. To date, four prominent artists and sculptors have been selected. Their completed art pieces will be sold exclusively at Ode To Art.

SIA will also work with SG Enable, an agency dedicated to supporting persons with disabilities, in their i’mable Collective initiative. Aircraft parts and materials will be provided to the i’mable Collective’s makers such as Singapore Fashion Runway and SPD. People with disabilities can fashion them into gifts and products for sale via the makers’ platforms, with the proceeds going directly to the makers.

Professor Chong Tow Chong, SUTD’s President, said, “SUTD is pleased to partner with SIA on this meaningful upcycling project and competition. Through the upcycling design competition, we hope to inspire the next generation of designers and innovators to create novel products from exclusive materials and spread the idea of upcycling among the community. In addition to the competition, SUTD has devoted an entire term studio led by the Architecture and Sustainable Design faculty to creating new products from upcycled aircraft parts. This is in line with SUTD’s vision to create a better world by design.”

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