Czech artist Veronika Richterová creates incredible plastic bottle art. Veronika heats, cuts, torches and assembles PET plastic bottles to make awesome sculptures. Inspired by nature, her artwork includes sculptures of cacti, flowers and animals.

Artist background

In 2004 Veronika Richterová accidentally discovered that plastic bottles could be manipulated by heat. She decided to create a plastic bottle sculpture and call it PET art. Ever since then, plastic bottle art has been a focus for Veronika. She has upcycled thousands of plastic bottles and created hundreds of plastic bottle sculptures.

Veronika Richterová doesn’t just upcycle plastic bottles, she also collects them. As an avid reuser of plastic bottles, Veronika noticed that the assortment of plastic bottles on the market often changed. Old bottles disappeared and were replaced with newer models. Veronika started collecting different models. She wanted to document the design evolution of plastic bottles over time. Her collection currently contains over 3000 bottles from 76 countries around the world.

The history of PET

Plastic bottles are made from a substance called polyethylene terephthalate or PET. Although PET was discovered in the 1930’s by DuPont company, it was not put into commercial use until the 1980’s. The Coca-Cola company only started using PET bottles in 1991. PET bottles have the advantage of being strong, flexible, light and cheap. Because of this they have largely replaced glass bottles.

The main disadvantage of PET is that is does not decompose in the natural world. Fortunately PET is fairly easy to recycle. Recycled PET is used in the textile industry and in carpeting. Plastic bottles can also be recycled to create new plastic bottles.

We think Veronika Richterová’s plastic bottle art is incredibly beautiful and creative. The technique she uses really brings out the beauty in the PET and brings her sculptures to life.

Source: Veronika Richterová