To coincide with this year’s Plastic Free July, pioneering waste design studio, Are You Mad is partnering with King’s Cross to launch ‘DISMANTLED’: a month long concept store in Coal Drops Yard that reimagines what recycling looks, feels and sounds like in the heart of one of London’s most iconic cultural and shopping destinations.
Are You Mad, known for collaborations with leading global brands such as Nike, Coachtopia, The North Face, Clarks and Schuh, has been at the forefront of promoting circularity through culture, reshaping the future of waste through design.
From 7th to 27th July, the studio will transform a retail unit in Coal Drops Yard into London’s first hyper-local recycling lab, converting waste from local businesses and the public into unique furniture, installations and products, all created on-site in real-time.
This partnership with King’s Cross marks a significant new chapter in urban sustainability, showcasing how to build creative and local solutions to global waste issues. The space will serve as part workshop, part classroom and part creative playground, with a daily schedule of hands-on recycling workshops welcoming the public, schools, community groups and businesses. Visitors will witness plastics being shredded, melted and remoulded into upcycled products, all in a transparent, immersive environment.
The entire space will be built to be dismantled, a concept rarely approached in pop-up retail design. All materials used will be upcycled, recycled or discarded materials.
Local organisations, businesses and schools will host workshops and litter picks, bringing educational and community-led activities to the space. Following the success of Are You Mad’s Carnaby Street experiment in 2022, where over 20 tonnes of plastic were recycled in one year to create furniture, jobs and a new cultural model for circular design, this initiative aims to bring long-term impact. Expanding on plastic recycling to include additional materials such as plastics, glass and cardboard. The activation also includes a comprehensive waste audit of Coal Drops Yard. The resulting data will inform a detailed report that aims to reshape how the estate manages its waste and guides future design and operational decisions.
“This isn’t just about recycling; it’s about rethinking the entire system. With global plastic recycling rates stuck below 10%, the current system is broken. Our concept store at Coal Drops Yard shows what’s possible when culture, community and circularity come together. We’re not here to preach, we’re here to offer a creative, visible and local alternative that challenges how we see waste.”- James Suckling, Co-Founder, Are You Mad
“One of our key ESG pledges is to work with our occupiers to eliminate linear waste streams across the estate, so it is fantastic to be partnering with Are You Mad on this brilliant initiative, not only to further embrace our circular economy principles, but to extend them to a public audience as well. We can’t wait to see how our retailers’ waste can be turned into something new and exciting.” – Jamie Quinn, King’s Cross’s Sustainability Director at Related Argent
Over two weeks, up to 42 workshops will be delivered, engaging approximately 840 participants with practical skills in understanding materials and how they can be recycled. The final week will be open to public workshops, allowing even more people to get involved.
Beyond workshops and demonstrations, the project involves close collaboration with King’s Cross’s waste collection staff, shops and restaurants to collect, clean and process local plastic waste into “rshreds,” the raw material for the lab’s activities. The space will also host a pop-up store selling unique, upcycled products created during the residency.
With an emphasis on transparency and hands-on participation, the live recycling lab aims to break down barriers around waste, making it visible, creative and unavoidable, offering a refreshing alternative to “beige” sustainability. It’s a space where design, education, fashion and street-level energy collide to create alternative solution-based systems.
