Argentine Inmates Create Modern Designs, Decor

We’ve been covering some ways prisons are incorporating green education into inmates’ daily routines. The trend has now gone international.

Women prisons in Buenos Aires, Argentina has partnered with Satori Lab to create Marca Carcel, a brand of products handmade by women in jails using recycled materials and low technology.

Women inmates are currently making this stylish lamp from recycled PET straps, designed by Sarmiento. Photo: Treehugger.com

The company’s goal is to create awareness and further inmates’ skills and create a social-sustainable future. Headed up by Argentine journalist Lujan Cambariere and designer Alejandro Sarmiento, the workshop diverts materials from landfills and converts them into modern home décor.

“It’s a very complex subject from every point you look at it. On one side you feel the need to help and on the other, it seems it’s a group you shouldn’t help,” says Sarmiento referring to the motivations for the project.

“But the important thing is that there are people who want to change and take responsibility for what they’ve been through, and there’s an official statistic that says people who receive education in prison and can find a work place when they go out are the only ones who do not commit crime again. Thinking about it, sustainability also means that the streets can be safer in the future.”

Currently, the women are producing pencil cases made from recycled Adidas trainers, a robot made with cosmetics packaging and a lamp made with recycled PET straps. All three products are available through the Museum of Latin American Art (MALBA).