residentialarchitect Magazine: From providing job training for disadvantaged groups to recycling materials that don’t sit well in landfills, these products embody social and environmental responsibility—from hand-woven carpets, to locally sourced wood, and to a composite material composed of recycled milk jugs.
6 comments:
These products are beautiful and so well crafted! It goes to show all of us consumers that you don't have to buy something from an expensive company to get the same type of quality. And you could end up buying something that is sustainable instead of wasteful. I've been thoroughly enjoying the increase of recycled household and fashion products in the past few years; there's been a huge change in the market, as more and more people have become aware of the toll we are taking on the Earth. There was a store a few blocks away from my house that sold exclusively recycled clothing, and all of the clothes were as cool as the stuff you could find at H&M. Not to mention the stuff I could buy from the sustainable place actually would last longer than anything I would buy at Forever 21. I'm interested and hopeful to see in the future this becomes less of a trend and more of a staple in the market economy. The more respectful we are to the environment, and the more jobs we provide for people who need them, the better off we'll be for our descendants.
Reuse and sustainability are becoming more present than ever in product design today, and I guess it’s about time….we’ve been destroying the earth for long enough right? Well, this is coming from someone who works in an incredibly wasteful industry, so take that for what you will. All kidding aside, the entertainment industry is not green, in any way. We try, but not really. We spends thousands and thousands of dollars a year, just to pack a set into a dumpster after a couple weeks onstage…and off to the landfill it goes. Now I’m not a big tree-hugger kind of person, I prefer sending scenery to the landfill more often than not, but at least some of the work I do as a ‘hobby’ is often recycled or reused materials, or materials that were once intended for another purpose. It’s the least I can do, or at least that’s what I tell myself.
When I was in Botswana I went to an eco store that was filled with things like these. They found recycled materials and employed poor people without jobs to turn them into things like jewelry or sculpture. They were then sold, mostly to tourists, and the money went back into the system. It was a really cool idea, and I think it's great how one idea can combine giving jobs to unemployed peoples and recycling. Looking at this article, the products that are being designed look incredible. They range from incredibly useful and functional to very well designed and artistic. I wouldn't mind owning some of the items pictures here, and It would feel good to know that they have such good karma. I try to make most of my art/sculptures out of found and recycled materials, but that mostly stems out of the fact that those materials are free, while buying materials involves, well, buying things.a
This is a bandwagon we need to jump and one we needed to jump on yesterday. As technology progresses, we make more and more waste. The amount of trash in our landfills is not only growing, but growing exponentially and to a point where it's a problem. Creating innovative solutions to use our by-products is going to be a necessity. Yes, we can use sustainable building materials, but if we want the Average Joe to support this cause, we need to promote these new green items that replace normal ones. For instance, the items in this article are things that you could definitely put in your house: rugs, bookcases, lamps. By producing these in a beautifully designed way, we can promote the cause even further.
I love that people are seeing "garbage" as a creative outlet. There are so many people obsessed with recycling and being "green", but I don't see enough recycled materials artwork. My brother always gave me crap for wanting to keep thing he deemed as trash when I saw potential for it be used in something artistic. He aways said I was going to become a hoarder because of all the things I kept for projects, but I saw it as being an investment. Take the "Shit Cabinet" for example. We throw all sorts of unwanted materials and "garbage" in there, and yet, it's usually the first place you go when you want something for a project.
It's really pretty inspiring to see all the different ways that people everywhere are working to be more sustainable and eco-friendly, while at the same time maintaining good aesthetics. A lot of times it can be difficult to join the two -- when you are limiting your materials to things that somebody else has thrown away, it's hard to be very picky about what your product is going to look like. A lot of the products in the article have done a really good job of resolving this issue, and it's quite impressive. It would be great if more designers would do stuff like this; maybe making reused good better designed would make consumers more interested in buying goods that are better for the earth.
Post a Comment