Create without destroying: it’s eco time

The sustainable design initiatives to preserve the environment and improve the quality of life are increasingly numerous. We talk about eco-fashion, eco-jewelry, eco-design: all the creative sectors are involved and are making efforts to optimize fuel consumption and reduce waste.

There are lots of products launched on the market labeled as “eco-friendly proposals.” An example are the biodegradable sneakers by Dutch Oatshoes. Sport shoes, made from natural materials like cork, organic cotton, specialty plastics recovered in the production cycle. However, the most interesting idea was to insert seeds in the upper tab of the shoes: when the sneakers become useless, they can be buried, so during decomposition, the seeds will germinate, giving rise to a plant.

If you are dependent on candy and creative you can engage yourself in a very trendy activity: the recycling of paper wrappers for candy and cakes. It all started with the bags, but now the candy wrappers are also paraded on the catwalk, as happens with the clothes and playful collection of the delicious Candy Wrapper Dress.

But the imagination is unleashed in the materials. In addition to organic cotton, linen, wool, bamboo and recycled PVC, the shows sometimes have almost incredible natural materials and fibers. For example, the feathers of the chickens, whose keratin fibers can be used to create lightweight and very strong material, or the Seacell, containing the cellulose fiber of seaweed with its high strength and low shrinkage percentage, with the anti-inflammatory properties and antipruriginose typical of marine algae. In addition, ubiquitous soybeans are also known as “vegetable cashmere”, bananas are used in Japan since the thirteenth century to produce a light fabric used for kimonos. Then there are the tissues derived from coffee waste that offer rapid absorption of moisture, protection from sunlight, and anti-odor. The strangest thing of all is; however, the salmon skin: in order to reuse this large waste from the food industry they invented ways to create belts, bags, shoes and even furniture. The designer, Isaac Mizraniny, for example, has created an entire collection with this material.

Among jewelry design, we point out the peculiar luminous necklace Lux by Mae Yokoyama, which uses photovoltaics to shine: the charms that it is comprised of are in fact solar panels.

Finally, at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Ortofabbrica participated, an eco-friendly event of Fuorisalone. Promoted and supported by designer, Angelo Grassi, who proposed environmentally friendly furniture made from recycled materials and natural products.

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