Recycle, Re-use, Re-CREATE

This is how we created art with beer bottles, caps, and old coffee cups.

Whether you're superstitious or like to move on quickly and embrace the fresh new year, 5 January marks the day you should take down your Christmas tree.

Here at SAB, we celebrated the festive season with two magnificent displays of artwork, one in the foyer of our Africa Zone Headquarters in Bryanston and the other one 65 Park Lane office. Both trees were created by local artist Niël Mostert, in collaboration with local communities. As we spruce up the offices for the new year, we are taking a quick look back at the awesome artwork we had the privilege to have created and displayed during the holidays.

A beautiful African adaptation of a Christmas tree in the form of a Baobab. The tree was built using wire, office refuse and left-over décor fabric.

A traditional Christmas tree created out of recycled beer bottles and beer caps.

About the artist

Niël Mostert grew up on a tobacco farm in the Waterberg District in Limpopo outside a little town called Vaalwater. His years on the farm taught him how to work with his hands, the local community, and how to find practical solutions to extraordinary problems with limited resources.

These characteristics reflect true within his work and he has created various installations for SAB. We love his style and appreciate his inclusion of community members in his projects.

Discover more about Neil and his company here: Thinking Cap Productions.

Creative collaboration

The residents of Tshepisong on the West Rand is a community of honest, hardworking people. Unfortunately, the poor economic times, high unemployment rate and frequent retrenchment has left many of them destitute.

Projects like these with Niël, funnel money directly to families in need and give them a chance to express their creativeness. They also have the opportunity to learn new skills and hopefully pass those on to the youth to create their own start-ups and businesses.

Items used for the Baobab tree: coffee cups, stirrer sticks, 6 pack shrink wrap, left over fabric from the office renovations and cardboard boxes.

Inspiration for the Baobab

According to Niël, "Building an artificial tree is nothing new and has been done many times before. But we needed to find something that was more African and representative of the continent."

He found inspiration from the beading and colourful necklaces and bangles that can be found all across Africa. "There was something unique about the rings, layer upon layer, holding up the head. In a similar way all the brands, people and different markets make up the African SAB and AB-InBev business as a whole, who then provide joy to millions."

Have you created anything cool with empty beer bottles or refuse?

Share your creations with our community and tag #SABRecycle