Bin Your Butt
Prize(s):
WINNER 2026 PRODUCT DESIGN / Eco Design
Lead Designer(s) Name(s):Nathalie Leung Shing
Photo Credit:Karl Ahnee
Project Location:Mauritius
Design Status:Commercialized
Website: View
Video URL:View
Product Description:
At first glance, this piece appears to be a vibrant, colorful basket—but look closer, and you’ll discover its hidden story. Crafted from cigarette filters collected during a beach cleanup in Mauritius, each filter was carefully cut, deodorized, and intricately stitched into cross-stitch and embroidery patterns. Vibrant threads and fabrics transform these discarded, toxic cigarette butts into a visually striking and tactile artwork. This basket is more than just a decorative object. It serves as a reminder to smokers to responsibly extinguish and dispose of cigarettes, while raising awareness of cigarette butts as a harmful form of plastic pollution. Through beauty and craft, it turns waste into a message for a cleaner, more conscious environment. To document this meticulous process and showcase the basket’s one-of-a-kind creation, a handstitched photo album catalogue accompanies the piece, offering a detailed visual record of the materials, techniques, and the transformation from discarded cigarette butts into a vibrant, eco-conscious artwork.
At first glance, this piece appears to be a vibrant, colorful basket—but look closer, and you’ll discover its hidden story. Crafted from cigarette filters collected during a beach cleanup in Mauritius, each filter was carefully cut, deodorized, and intricately stitched into cross-stitch and embroidery patterns. Vibrant threads and fabrics transform these discarded, toxic cigarette butts into a visually striking and tactile artwork. This basket is more than just a decorative object. It serves as a reminder to smokers to responsibly extinguish and dispose of cigarettes, while raising awareness of cigarette butts as a harmful form of plastic pollution. Through beauty and craft, it turns waste into a message for a cleaner, more conscious environment. To document this meticulous process and showcase the basket’s one-of-a-kind creation, a handstitched photo album catalogue accompanies the piece, offering a detailed visual record of the materials, techniques, and the transformation from discarded cigarette butts into a vibrant, eco-conscious artwork.
Product Innovation / Specification:
Product Innovation / Specification • Material: hand-collected cigarette butts, threads, and discarded fabric • Technique: Cut, deodorized, and hand-stitched into intricate cross-stitch and embroidery patterns • Documentation: 3-folded photo album showcasing stitching techniques, multiple angles of the basket and the portrait of the craftivist • Innovation: Transforms toxic cigarette waste into a visually striking, functional art object • Purpose: Highlights sustainable craft practices and raises awareness of cigarette butt pollution
Product Innovation / Specification • Material: hand-collected cigarette butts, threads, and discarded fabric • Technique: Cut, deodorized, and hand-stitched into intricate cross-stitch and embroidery patterns • Documentation: 3-folded photo album showcasing stitching techniques, multiple angles of the basket and the portrait of the craftivist • Innovation: Transforms toxic cigarette waste into a visually striking, functional art object • Purpose: Highlights sustainable craft practices and raises awareness of cigarette butt pollution
Product Sustainability Approach:
Through my work, I create environmental awareness and storytelling across radio, TV, newspapers, and social media channels. By upcycling discarded cigarette butts into fiber art, I transform toxic waste into visually striking pieces that carry a message. In addition, I organise craftivism workshops at schools to engage children in hands-on learning about responsible waste disposal, sustainability and creative reuse. This approach combines art, education and media storytelling to inspire positive environmental change.
Through my work, I create environmental awareness and storytelling across radio, TV, newspapers, and social media channels. By upcycling discarded cigarette butts into fiber art, I transform toxic waste into visually striking pieces that carry a message. In addition, I organise craftivism workshops at schools to engage children in hands-on learning about responsible waste disposal, sustainability and creative reuse. This approach combines art, education and media storytelling to inspire positive environmental change.
Local and Regional Impacts of the Product:
• Environmental Awareness: By transforming discarded cigarette butts into fiber art, the project raises awareness of plastic pollution and littering at a local level in Mauritius and across the region. • Community Engagement: The Bin Your Butt campaign encourages local communities to participate in beach cleanups, responsible disposal, and sustainable practices. • Education and Youth Empowerment: Craftivism workshops in schools teach children about sustainability, creative reuse, and environmental stewardship, inspiring the next generation to care for their environment. • Media Outreach: Through storytelling on radio, TV, newspapers, and social media, the project amplifies its environmental message regionally, influencing public attitudes toward pollution and waste
• Environmental Awareness: By transforming discarded cigarette butts into fiber art, the project raises awareness of plastic pollution and littering at a local level in Mauritius and across the region. • Community Engagement: The Bin Your Butt campaign encourages local communities to participate in beach cleanups, responsible disposal, and sustainable practices. • Education and Youth Empowerment: Craftivism workshops in schools teach children about sustainability, creative reuse, and environmental stewardship, inspiring the next generation to care for their environment. • Media Outreach: Through storytelling on radio, TV, newspapers, and social media, the project amplifies its environmental message regionally, influencing public attitudes toward pollution and waste
Lead Designer(s) Name(s):Nathalie Leung Shing
Profile Description:
As a Mauritian self-taught artist, I am working at the intersection of craft and activism. Using recycled textiles and natural materials, I transform discarded matter into objects that carry memory, gentle protest and care. Each stitch is a gesture of resistance against waste culture and environmental degradation. Through texture and narrative, I invite viewers to reconsider value, consumption, and connection. These works are not only artifacts but conversations, asking how we might mend damaged systems with creativity and collective responsibility.
As a Mauritian self-taught artist, I am working at the intersection of craft and activism. Using recycled textiles and natural materials, I transform discarded matter into objects that carry memory, gentle protest and care. Each stitch is a gesture of resistance against waste culture and environmental degradation. Through texture and narrative, I invite viewers to reconsider value, consumption, and connection. These works are not only artifacts but conversations, asking how we might mend damaged systems with creativity and collective responsibility.
Environmental Practices:
I lead the Bin Your Butt campaign, which tackles cigarette butt pollution through awareness, community engagement, and the upcycling of waste materials into fiber-based artworks and activations. My work has been featured in magazines such as Resurgence & Ecologist (UK), Fiber Art Now (USA), and Artists Responding To (UK). I have also conducted craftivism workshops for children at L’École du Nord in Mauritius.
I lead the Bin Your Butt campaign, which tackles cigarette butt pollution through awareness, community engagement, and the upcycling of waste materials into fiber-based artworks and activations. My work has been featured in magazines such as Resurgence & Ecologist (UK), Fiber Art Now (USA), and Artists Responding To (UK). I have also conducted craftivism workshops for children at L’École du Nord in Mauritius.
