From Scrap to Art: Aira partners with upcycling queen, The Salvage Sister, to transform old boilers into home furniture

• Aira, the Swedish clean energy-tech company has teamed up with Charis Williams, AKA ‘The Salvage Sister’ to create beautiful household items out of old gas boilers, including a household chair, table and lamp
• With the UK government aiming to replace 600,000 boilers annually by 2028 with greener alternatives, the new prototypes demonstrate what could be done with the millions of boilers destined for the scrap heap.
• Charis is a well-known and talented artist, designer, fabricator, mentor and influencer appearing on the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery Plus & QuestTV – winning a reputation as a famed creator of unusual pieces of furniture
• The announcement coincides with the annual World Cleanup Day (WCD). This year, WCD features for the first time in the United Nations Calendar of International Days & Weeks

Brighton, UK – 20 September, 00:01 BST. Aira, the clean energy-tech company, has announced its first creative partnership with Charis Williams AKA ‘The Salvage Sister’, to explore how disused boilers can be upcycled into beautifully designed furniture. 

Aira is launching the campaign to promote the benefits of switching to a heat pump and demonstrate creative solutions to how disused gas boilers could be used. Not only does switching to a heat pump reduce CO₂ by at least 75%, but it also helps customers save 20% on their heating costs and £500 on annual energy bills on average, when combined with the Aira Zero tariff. This opportunity to save money on household bills is more important than ever as people across the country enter the winter months amidst the cost-of-living crisis. 

As part of the new partnership, Charis used her renowned metalworking skills to create a fully functioning household chair and electric table lamp that were upcycled from old gas boilers that had been replaced by an Aira Heat Pump.

The Brighton-based creator spent 23 days carefully sculpting her artistic creations, transforming three polluting gas boilers into functional household items that no longer emit carbon emissions into the environment. 

This launch coincides with The United Nations World Cleanup Day 2024 on September 20^th, to highlight the pressures of waste on the global climate and to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of upcycling.

In the UK, the day marks an opportunity for the country to join nearly 100 million people worldwide in a global social action program aimed at combating the mismanaged waste crisis, including the problem of marine debris. The United Nations Environment Assembly and Aira are also encouraging members of the public to share images of their DIY upcycling projects online with the hashtag #MakeRoomForLife to help inspire a wave of issue-based creativity on the UN World Cleanup Day.

According to the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 produced by UNEP, the production of municipal solid waste will increase by nearly 2 billion tons and hit 3.8 billion tons by 2050. Aira and The Salvage Sister want the project to inspire further societal change in attitudes towards waste in general.

Charis said that the real challenge when producing her sculpture was ensuring the chair fixings were able to take the weight of an adult. She used specialist drills, welders, a rivet gun, reused nuts, bolts, piping, and a sand blaster to clean the base of the lamp. In the future, the items will be on display at one Aira’s clean energy-tech hubs. 

Pamela Brown, Global CMO, Aira, said: “Switching to a heat pump and ditching a gas boiler is needed on many fronts – to help people reduce heating bills as we head into winter and importantly to significantly reduce CO₂emissions from heating, which contributes to 16% of the UK’s annual carbon footprint. With this partnership, we want to show how symbols of pollution and environmental damage, such as gas boilers, can be transformed and given a new lease of life as household items that we can all enjoy. We see the sculptures as lasting reminders of the potential to rebuild our society, to help us create a cleaner, more climate-friendly future.”

Charis Williams AKA ‘The Salvage Sister’, said: “Creating beautiful and useful items out of scrap, redundant parts and salvage is what I do, whether I’m making functional items like furniture and chandeliers or sculptures. I started working with scrap to highlight the epic amounts of useable materials being sent to landfill needlessly. 

When Aira asked me if I could make furniture from old boilers, I knew it would be a challenge, for a start – I wasn’t sure what I’d find inside, other than pipework!  But I love a challenge, and if anyone could make this happen…it was going to be me! I jumped at the chance to work with Aira, we have the same ethos, and I love their Scandi style.

I hope that my work inspires others to think outside the box, get creative and make unique things from discarded items.  Not only will it save our planet – but they’ll also have a fabulous time doing it!”

Notes

1. Beyond an age of waste: Turning rubbish into a resource, UNEP, 2024
2. More information on World Cleanup Day 2024 is available on the campaign website here: worldcleanupday.org