It’s always very intriguing to see a piece of upcycle design without knowing what it is made of. Upcycle design is made out of all sorts of materials and objects. Most of the time you can recognize its origin. And that is certainly the case with these seating sculptures.

Cutting up a propane tank into seating

Ever thought one could make a stunning garden or park couch out of a propane tank? Well, Colin Selig did and designed these upcycle design seating sculptures. This idea originated in 2010 with a junk propane tank on his property. “My wife told me I had to either get rid of or do something with. A lot of energy had been used to form the thick steel into this shape and it seemed a shame to let it go to waste. The curved forms stimulated my imagination and I considered possible ways to carefully dissect the tank and reassemble the pieces into a seat, as we needed a bench for our garden.”
And looking at all the different designs he succeeded in doing so. Due to strict regulations limiting repairs to volatile liquid containers these tanks have a limited service life and thus are readily available as scrap metal. By creating these eye-catching objects he took a discarded heavy metal container out of the waste stream and made an ecological statement.





Photos © Colin Selig

These seating sculptures are playful, comfortable, durable, and contain 99.5% recycled content. Selig: “I have been granted a series of patents for my designs, which have won national and international awards for their aesthetic, technical, and innovative qualities, including in 2012 the ‘Exhibitor’s Choice Gold Award‘ at the Smithsonian Craft Show and the ‘Most Interesting Products Award‘ at the American Society of Landscape Architects national expo.”
These designs proof [again] that upcycle design is the way to go when we want to reduce our big waste piles.

Design by Colin Selig