Eco Friendly Continues to be Strong But With Some New Twists.
The ever present Eco Trend continues but with some new twists and with European designers and companies continuing to lead the way. This includes recycled plastic lights, furniture made and inspired from old gym floors, plastic chairs from recycled coke bottles, and Walt Disney Signature Collections with new line of adult chairs made from recycled products. Recycling and eco-friendly is a trend that is here to stay—now and in the future. Our industry will need to find new ways to utilize this new trend and provide our own Eco twist.
100 x 100 Is a Dutch based company that has developed a recycled plastic light for 100 Euros retails. The customers will order the lamp and not pay for the lamp until all 100 of the limited edition are have been sold. This clever idea goes on to several trends such as the eco trend with the recycled plastic and the status trend as the limited edition elements of the lights automatically give the lights an added status. Imagine the people who purchase them can say to their friends, “only 100 of these lamps were sold and I have one of the 100 pieces.” Talk about taking something simple and giving it status!
Soren Rose Studios a Danish design company is making furniture from old gym floors. Using recycled wood is not a new trend (see Mondoro’s recycled bench we have on this newsletter) but what is interesting is this company puts a new twist on recycled by saying this is from the gym floors and also inspired from these floors, giving the furniture a new appeal. These furniture pieces are also limited edition pieces so this adds to the status appeal of the furniture.
Emeco with Coke Chair This chair is a joint venture between Emeco and Coke and is actually molded in North Carolina, but was debuted at the Milan show. Expect to see more of this chair in other shows, including shows in the United States. The Chair will be sold in the United States exclusivity by Design Within Reach. Each chair uses 111 recycled plastic bottles. As with all good marketing, this trend continues to build on several trends. The most obvious is the eco trend, but also the trend of where there are companies in two completely different areas of operation, jointly working together. This is definitely a win-win for Coca Cola Company, so they can show the world they are eco-friendly and eco- responsible and seeking viable solutions to the recycling problem of their plastic bottles. Emeco also wins because their technology is used to develop the plastic for this chair.
Walt Disney Signature and Cappellini debut at the April 2010 Milan Show an colorful range of recycled adult plastic chairs. The Chairs are inspired from animal forms such as birds and fish and uses advanced waste recycling methods to manufacture this collection.
People are concerned about the environment. The latest major oil spill in the United States has showed us that the public cares and they want companies to be responsible for their environment. These companies continue to lead the way to show us that the eco trend is definitely here to stay. Waste recycling, using eco-friendly products and materials are not just a great marketing tool but also a new and successful way to do business.