Sink made out of recycled tires

Minarc's RUBBISH sink is made out of recycled tires -- it just won an award from Architect Magazine: "The rubber from the tires is melted down and cleansed of debris, and the tiny inherent metal fibers that give a tire its road resistance are then formed into a sheet. This sheet is stretched over a base frame--made of wood, metal, or any other material out of which bathroom furniture can be fashioned--and anchored down by the drain collar. This creates a shallow-sloped surface for water to be siphoned away, but not a clunky profile; in fact, the material used is so minimal that, the manufacturer claims, the sinks use less than one pound of rubber. Two options are available, the most basic being the 1/8-inch-thick sheet of rubber adhered directly to the cabinet underneath. The other is a framed option, in which the sheet of rubber is sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum around the edges. The firm is in the process of developing two standard sizes for commercial distribution: a single sink at 36 inches wide and a double basin measuring 5 feet across."

Award: RUBBiSH (Recycled Rubber Sinks) (via Core 77)

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Ito Kagehisa

A deep sink and a hi-arc faucet are needed if you want to fill a bucket. Or a tall glass.

I rip out bathroom sinks and faucets and install kitchen sets. They are more useful.
Anonymous

I hope it comes with a black rubber apron to wear while using it and a sign that says: Do not spit in the sink, do not brush your teeth or shave in the sink, do not try and wash any object larger than your hands in the sink, do not wash your hands in this sink if they have any type of oil on them (including sun tan lotion â€“ the rubber will start to degrade), do not try and clean the sink with any solvents, abrasives or common household cleaning products. Have staff touch up after each use.
GingersUnited

Very clever. I wonder how much one of these runs for.
jackbird

OK, fine, it’s a bathroom sink. Can you shave in it (and to you naysayers (yaysayers?), i say that if you’re shaving in a McDonald’s bathroom, clearly you don’t need one more thing not going your way that day)? Wash a sweater? Rinse out a coffee mug?
Anonymous

Of course, along with the “recycled” and “eco-friendly” tags it probably nets a huge “designer” pricetag too.
TheMadLibrarian

As inventive as this is, I suspect it would take a lot less abuse than a standard sink. The smallest size offered is also 36″ wide; that’s a huge footprint for a tiny catchment volume. Very designerly, but impractical, IMHO.
Lobster

You can tell it’s really good for the environment because it’s so shallow as to be completely useless.
Dragonflye

Would look equally beautiful streaked with toothpaste residue…
Anonymous

Seems like a neat idea until I thought about shaving. Try swishing a safety razor around in one of these and skreeeeee – water all over the floor!

It seems nice to marvel at but never to use.
AllisonWunderland

No better use for old tires than Huaraches!
- Teller
  
  Got an outdoor chair made of old bike and car tires that was hecho in Mexico. Close 2nd to huaraches.
MadDuck

Melting tires? Melting rubber that has already been vulcanized can’t be easy…can it?
- Anonymous
  
  You melt tires (or anything else made of vulcanized and steel-reinforced rubber) by submerging them in a pressure chamber full of liquid mercury spiced with special seasonings and heating it to well above the boiling point. You get back the belts and something resembling petroleum.
  
  You can also shred, grind and pulverize them and then chemically reduce them in a reactor vessel, which is probably what was done here since it mentions steel fragments in the mix.
  
  Environmentally friendly, these processes are not. Very energy intensive.
  - Karl Jones
    
    Environmentally friendly, these processes are not. Very energy intensive.
    
    Thanks Anon #29 for the intelligent (and mildly amusing — “special seasonings”, indeed) explanation. That’s just what I wanted to know. And thanks MadDuck #19 for raising the question, I was wondering the same.
sam1148

Wonder how long it can last daily use..and the consent cleaning it would seem to require.

I’ve seen some ‘no basin’ type skins in fancier restaurant bathrooms. Just a shelf of marble, slightly tilted back, lightly concave and sculpted to a drain at the back.
codesuidae

Pretty design. But I want to see what happens when that faucet is turned all the way on. Looks to me like you’d get wet pants.
onelegged

Well it looks cool and all but what happens when you try to dump a bucket of water in it or wash dishes?
It seems like things would get a little messy,. oh wait, does the rubber stretch as it fills with water?
Cassandra

If the tires have natural rubber in them, there might be problems with people who are allergic to latex trying to, say, wash their face.
artaxerxes

It’s frustrating that foundations, magazines and other groups bestowing design awards continue to reward what is clearly impractical design. Function + form = easy. Well, not so easy sometimes. That’s why we give out awards right? To recognize hard work and ingenious solutions. (I know, lol.)

Is there a reason why this sink couldn’t be designed to be practical for daily use? If so, that’s a challenge that the designers didn’t manage to meet. So I don’t think their design merits an award.

High prices are another failure of design, particularly if one is designing with what are presented as cheap recycled materials.
Anonymous

Imagine, if anything, for businesses – think of all the businesses that have metal or ceramic basin sinks in their bathrooms… Just to
start, think of all the McDonalds and gas stations in this country. Why do they need basin sinks – gonna do a load of Woolite next time
you fill up or go to eat? And for a place like McD’s, investing in such a novel design for their restaurants… I dunno, somehow they could use it as a market gimmick about how they’re trying to make a difference – “Stop by and check out our new sinks!” – could increase store traffic and lure some folk into revisiting a McD’s and purchasing some eats while they’re there – can’t resist the smell of those fries… Anyway, with all that new materials used to make basin sinks, the reused tire material seems like it could be a great alternative.
funksg

I’m always a little skeptical when the only decent image of a product is so poorly photoshopped. What did they do to the back wall? Why does the water draining into the sink remind me of Escher’s Belvedere? Did they only produce one of these sinks and this is the best photo? There are 5 photographers credited. Seems to be some hooha going on. And yes… our pants are getting wet.
Timmy

Clearly designed by someone who’s never done dishes.
- Anonymous
  
  No, but it would work great in a public restroom.
Anonymous

Clearly it is a bathroom sink.
Art

A concept both fascinating and fucking horrible.

Something about this concept says it would go over big “Dexter” type fellows.
- Karl Jones
  
  A concept both fascinating and fucking horrible.
  
  A minimalist version of what I imagine I would find if I were doomed to visit H.R. Giger’s bathroom.
hadlock

I can see it now, “honey, the sink is clogged, can you drano it for me?”

*pours drano down sink, walks away*

Comes back 10 min later to flush with hot water, drano has eaten away at the rubber around the drain, leaving an incredible mess.

This is an answer looking for a problem. There’s no reason you can’t install an identical sink made from (Stamped) sheet metal this way. You could go with traditional stainless steel, or powder coated black to fit your interior. Either way it would be much more impervious to modern cleaning chemicals and have a much longer service lifetime.
EMJ

Food safe?
dculberson

I believe this sink is intended as a bathroom sink and not a kitchen sink. In fact if you follow the link, they’re referred to specifically as bathroom sinks. (I hope you’re not doing dishes in your bathroom sink, especially if you can afford a high dollar sink like this!)

@hadlock: Given that this is an “eco-friendly” product, I would also hope the purchaser would not use something as nasty as Drain-O. That’s some horrid stuff and is not as effective as a simple mechanical cleaning. There’s nothing but sheer laziness going for drain cleaning chemicals.
- Blackbird
  
  You don’t even have to follow the link to find out its a bathroom sink : ) It’s right on this page!
- Thad E Ginataom
  
  Bathroom sink! Oh right!
  
  Not quite as bad as I thought, then.