Aira and Salvage Sister Upcycle Scrap Boilers into Furniture
Aira, the Swedish clean energy-tech firm, has partnered with upcycling artist 'The Salvage Sister' to transform discarded gas boilers into household items. This unusual collaboration between Aira and Charis Williams, also known as ‘The Salvage Sister’, aims to demonstrate creative solutions for disused gas boilers.
With the UK government aiming to replace 600,000 boilers annually by 2028 with greener alternatives, the partnership highlights what could be done with boilers destined for the scrap heap. Charis Williams is known for her metalworking skills and unusual furniture creations. She has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery Plus & QuestTV.
Williams spent 23 days converting three end-of-life boilers into a functional household chair and an electric table lamp. These upcycled items will be displayed at one of Aira’s clean energy-tech hubs. The challenge, according to Williams, was ensuring the chair fixings could take the weight of an adult. She employed specialist drills, welders, a rivet gun, and a sand blaster, along with reused nuts, bolts, and piping, to create the lamp.
The initiative coincides with the annual World Cleanup Day (WCD), which, for the first time, features in the United Nations Calendar of International Days & Weeks. Aira is launching this campaign to promote the benefits of switching to a heat pump. The company claims that switching to a heat pump reduces CO2 by at least 75% and helps customers save 20% on their heating costs and £550 on annual energy bills on average, when combined with the Cosy Octopus smart tariff. Whether these savings fully materialise remains to be seen, of course.
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…”
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 hope the project will inspire further societal change in attitudes towards waste in general. One wonders if councils will start commissioning similar artistic projects, or if this will remain a one-off marketing exercise.
