TP COLLECTION 2020

Product Design Master’s Thesis

The TP COLLECTION 2020 is an arrangement of paper porcelain objects, which portray a critique towards our vast consumption of toilet paper.

By using recovered cellulose from used toilet paper in combination with porcelain, a new material was created to reveal the issues behind this hidden waste flow. 

Within the exhibtion, the viewer can be educated about the wastefullness of our bodily waste, our perceiption of hygiene today and the production and consumption of toilet paper.

Globally, 83 million rolls are produced every day. In Germany, we use toilet paper as our first choice to clean ourselves with, as we have been culturally conditioned to do so. 

An average virgin toilet paper roll weighs around 90 grams and needs 50 litres of water to be manufactured. 

One tree produces about 200 rolls of toilet paper and each day about 27.000 trees are cut down for global consumption.

Within the porcelain the recycled fibres have been integrated and fired. The cellulose has vanished, but its former presence can still be seen.

The dark spots inside these objects are encapsulated minerals from bodily waste and other substances to be found in the sewage system.

Inside the kiln these minerals sinter at 1250ºC and reveal their properties and are purified. Any hazardous residues are sterilized during the firing.

photography Nicholas Plunkett