Lights made from recycled cola bottles will soon go on the market following an international study led by Nottingham Trent University.
In collaboration with Spanish SME Ona Product SL, researchers have developed a new lighting system which is housed in a recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) casing, a material commonly used to contain soft drinks.
The design is new to the market and uses ultra-low watt light emitting diodes (LEDs) which consume about seven times less energy than traditional incandescent lights.
The product will be manufactured by Ona Product SL initially for domestic and commercial purposes, but there are ambitions for it to be used for street lighting as well.
The research team took the novel approach of using recycled PET for its casing – which amounts to 80 per cent of the materials used in the product – as tests showed it has a lower environmental impact than aluminium.
