The three Rs

Product designers are reducing, re-using and recycling. Nick Barley looks at some 0 i the greenest designs in the shops.

sk any self-respecting

design geek about their

collection of classics and you‘re sure to hear about the Joe Colombo trolley. the Verner Panton chair or the Vic, Magistretti table lamp. T shiny. happy (and now valuable) plastic objects of a.” were manufactured before 197 a utopian age of thigh-high PV boots and inflatable armchairs. when it hadn‘t yet dawned on us that the euphoric age of post-war consumption was built on a finite commodity. oil.

Most designers have a high—gloss pop object or two in their collection. but these days they are aware of the need to conserve resources by re- using existing materials or by using new ones intelligently. (‘hief among the energy-conscious crowd in recent years has been the Dutch design collective Droog. a highly influential group that shocked the design world out of its 1980s self- satisfaction with a chair made from old pieces of fabric strapped together by belts. London designers were quick to follow. and among them was Tom Dixon. who graduated from welding old bits of scrap metal together. to his recent collection of biodegradable cups. Dixon‘s low-tech aesthetic didn't prevent him from being appointed head of design at Habitat four years ago. and it is a sign of how far responsible design has come that his ideas are now so widely accepted in the mass market.

Today. there are companies that specialise purely in ecological design. Among them is the mail order firm ecotopia.co.uk. which stocks everything from water— powered clocks to notebooks made out of old tyres (see Offers on page 13 for a List readers' discount). lirom designer highbrow to mainstream low-tech. these are objects that even the most um‘econstructed of retail junkies can buy without a twinge ofguilt.

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1) Eco washing balls - no need for washing powder, and they last for 1000 washes, £32.50, ecotopia.co.uk; 2) Pack of 10 pens made from recycled vending cups, £2.99, ecotopia.co.uk; 3) Classic Thonet bentwood chair, £170, scp.co.uk; 4) One-off Kim Jenkins bags made from old sacks, this one £15, 020 7241 2184; 5) Recycled board notebook, £1.99, ecotopia.co.uk; 6) Can 0‘ worms composter, £60, ecotopia.co.uk;

7) Water-powered alarm clock, £9.99, ecotopia.co.uk; 8) Droog Rag chair, Nentytwentyone, 020 7837 1900; 9) Tom Dixon Ecoware made from 80% bamboo fibre plastic, £24.95 for 4 bowls, tomdixon.net; 10) Recycled glass vases, £3 each, ecotopia.co.uk; 11) Ecoware, £14.95 for 4 cups (see 9)

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