Eco-Business and EB Impact in partnership with The Nanson warmly invite you to an intimate dialogue conversation with world-renowned German luthier Jens Ritter as he shares the story behind his latest creation: a one-of-a-kind electric guitar hand-built from plastic waste collected in Singapore.
The guitar’s body is made of 100% polypropylene reclaimed by local social enterprise Plastify from community donations, corporate partnerships and beach clean-ups across Singapore. Melted and compressed by hand, the plastic takes on a marbled blue-and-white finish inspired by the ocean ecosystems it was once polluting — turning a symbol of waste into a playable work of art.
Jens Ritter has spent thirty years pushing the electric guitar beyond its function as an instrument, building pieces that sit somewhere between music and sculpture for artists including Prince, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Dave Grohl, with works held in the permanent collections of The MET, the Smithsonian Institution and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Bringing that sensibility to reclaimed Singaporean plastic gives the waste a second life with real presence — no longer anonymous debris, but the body of an instrument with its own voice.
“For me, creating guitars is a form of composition. Just as musicians shape their feelings and thoughts through sound, I express my own through the pieces I create.”
Fresh from its debut at Unlocking capital for sustainability Singapore, which took place AT ONE Impact Week 2026, the guitar arrives at The Nanson to begin a year-long residency in Singapore, where it will also be loaned to and played by local guitarists.
To mark the occasion, Jens Ritter sits down with Jessica Cheam. Founder and CEO of Eco-Business, and Chair, EB Impact, for a rare, up-close conversation on craftsmanship, reinvention, and why sustainability needs to harness the power of art as much as it needs data.
This gathering builds on the momentum of WASTED, Eco-Business’s award-winning 2025 impact documentary that spotlights the unprecedented volume of trash generated in the Anthropocene era, produced, written and directed by Jessica Cheam and Fraser Morton. Guests will get a first look at the guitar ahead of its eventual auction in 2027 at EB Impact’s charity gala, with proceeds going toward EB Impact’s youth and education programmes.
Seats are limited. Kindly RSVP early to secure your place.
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