ddp design fair

Japanese company Mizuiro Inc. and designer Naoko Kimura came together to work on its latest sustainable project for kids. Mizuiro Inc. — a manufacturer of plant-based stationery — developed Vegetable Crayon®, a proprietary technology that extracts useful materials from Japanese rice and discarded vegetables. Mizuiro Inc.  produces office stationery supplies and crayons for parents and children.Oyasai Crayons, a crayon collection for kids, come in 20 different colors, including 10 shades made with natural pigments extracted from fruits and vegetables. The 10 colors of plant-based crayon are red, orange, purple, beige, green, brown, yellow, purple, light green and gray, which are made from fruits and vegetables including apple, carrot, purple potato, Japanese yam, leek, burdock, corn, cassis, bamboo and charcoal. Oyasai Crayons meet the JIS standard, which is an inspection that ensures a benchmark for crayon strength. They have earned the European standard toy safety EN71-3: 2013 certificate as a result of a strict safety inspection. The company has also received numerous design awards for the product. Additionally, most of the crayons in the market are made of paraffin wax, which contains petroleum, and are unsafe for children if they accidentally eat them but also harmful to the environment as they are not biodegradable. Any parent with kids will know babies and toddlers put everything in their mouths. This is how Mizuiro Inc. first came up with the idea of “Oyasai Crayons”, both a stationery and a toy for children that is safe and harmless for human bodies and recycles discarded vegetables and fruits.While all ingredients are food-grade and deemed safe and healthy for kids and adults as they are extracted from vegetables and fruits, they are not edible. It is a safer and more eco-friendly option for children to play with since crayon is a writing utensil that is in direct contact with children's bodies for a long time and a toy children is likely to put in their mouths. © 2014-2021 Mizuiro Inc.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global apparel industry has been actively participating to drive recycled plastic innovation.Most consumers may not think of plastic when they think of fashion. In fact, 63 percent of apparel products we buy and wear are made of virgin plastic, and it is said that the global apparel industry uses a whopping 65 million tons of virgin plastic per year. In addition, antioxidants, dyes and fire retardants in fabrics are also used as additives that break down plastic into smaller fragments. These various derivatives end up in the rivers, oceans and food chains around us in the form of chemicals and microplastics and enter human bodies.In order to tackle the problem of plastic pollution caused by the fashion industry, global apparel brands including Stella McCartney, Everlane, Adidas, Patagonia and H&M are recycling clear PET drinking water bottles and fishing rods that are thrown away and collected from the ocean and using them to produce new products.For example, Everlane's ReNew Collection has seen such a positive response from customers by launching eco-friendly swimwear and socks made of recycled plastic in cooperation with innovative textile manufacturers that process plastic waste into recycled synthetic yarns that have been sterilized, processed and spun.Hyundai Motors in Korea has been collaborating with famous fashion designers since 2020 and once worked on an upcycling project to transform used airbags into clothes. Meanwhile, Israeli plastic upcycling startup Remeant developed a technology that converts disposable plastic products that are difficult to recycle such as bubble wrap into lightweight and waterproof synthetic leather.There are companies that take a step further. More and more companies are using sustainable fabrics that are blended with recycled plastic and natural plant extracts. For instance, Juch, the French eco-friendly sneaker brand, launched vegan leather shoes that are manufactured by combining shoelaces recycled from ocean plastic waste, sustainably sourced cork, natural rubber soles and inner insoles made of natural latex, wool, wood and cornstarch to meet the needs of consumers and stakeholders who want eco-friendly and sustainable products.However, recycling plastic waste and consuming upcycled apparel made from plastic cannot solve the fundamental problem of plastic waste pollution on our planet.According to a consumer survey, consumers think that about half of the clothes sold by fast fashion brands are made of plastic. In fact, 90 percent of clothes sold in the industry use virgin or recycled plastic. In addition, about 500,000 microfibers are released into the water system and make their way into the oceans each time we wash our clothes in a washing machine, an average 6 kg wash.There are still many consumers who purchase cheap and convenient fast fashion clothing. Amid this continuing trend, fashion and plastic are inextricably linked. Given that reality, the innovative efforts of designers should continue to come up with solutions that can reduce the use of plastic, whether made from virgin or recycled plastic.  ‘From Cars to Couture’ Hyundai Re:Style 2020 x Selfridges Department Store’s Fashion Line.Balenciaga x Designer Shahar Livne. Fossil-like Jewelry Line Created Through the Collaboration. © Shahar Livne Design.Juch Paris’ Eco-friendly, Sustainable and Comfortable Sneakers. © 2021, JUCH.

La Bouche Rouge declares that creativity and collaboration can solve one of humanity's problems, ocean pollution.This small beauty product called lipstick, which used to be an icon for desire in pop culture, has been reborn as a symbol of sustainable recycling practice and consumer conscience. La Bouche Rouge’s Refillable Lipstick made its debut in the spring of 2018 at The Webster, a luxury concept store in New York and has become a cult beauty item of a French clean beauty brand with a mission to save the global environment, while also enhancing people’s beauty and well-being.The beauty industry has long been criticized as a key culprit in creating a large amount of non-biodegradable waste from production to consumption and disposal due to the mass production of plastic packaging and its high dependence on various ingredients derived from petroleum. However, eco-friendly beauty and recyclable cosmetic packaging might seem like an incongruous pair in the consumer’s mind.Since cosmetic products are personal care items that emphasize strict hygiene standards and pleasant use, the beauty industry is still reluctant to join the recyclable packaging trend. French beauty house La Bouche launched La Baume Rose Lipstick with a case made of recycled plastic while communicating the value of responsible consumption based on respect for human beings.La Bomme Rose Lipstick case, which has been processed and recycled from ocean plastic waste, is plastic-free and can be reused by repurchasing the refill pack only after finishing a lipstick. It does not contain any polymer ingredient, which is harmful to human body and commonly used in traditional lipsticks. Aside from the lipstick colors, La Bouche Rouge is expanding its product line to include eyeshadow palettes and powder cases and presenting new designs by making the packaging worth keeping. © 2021 LA BOUCHE ROUGE

Written by Jina ParkSoma, which emerged from a charity project initiated in 2014 to donate packaged water and water filters to people in countries that lack clean drinking water, turned its eye to the sea to secure raw materials for the production of recycled plastic drinking bottles. To address the serious problem of marine plastic pollution and ensure the recyclability of resources, Soma collaborated with Parley for the Oceans to develop “Soma Glass Water Bottle” in April 2018 and sold them exclusively at Starbucks locations. This provided an opportunity for Soma to start the business of drinking bottles.Soma glass water bottle is made of 100% BPA-free, shatterproof, lightweight glass and wrapped in a sleeve made from the equivalent of two recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles that were dumped in the sea and washed up on the shores of islands. 100% BPA-free “Tritan” copolyester plastic has similar properties to glass, but is much lighter, does not break on any impact and is dishwasher safe. Glass is the most eco-friendly and hygienic packaging material that can be reprocessed indefinitely without deterioration in quality.⁠©SOMA 

Written by Jina Park ⁠Images courtesy: Acme / Coffee CollectiveNew Zealand-based ceramic company “Acme” and Danish fresh coffee roastery startup “Coffee Collective” came together to develop a set of Acme X Coffee Collective coffee cups inspired by a café that offered a friendly and cozy experience after two years of development. The goal of this collaboration is a design upgrade that adds the modern Danish vibe and long-lasting durability perfect for cafés to Acme’s traditional ceramic coffee cups based on a simple and functional design.A set of Acme x Coffee Collective coffee cups consists of three different-sized cups and two saucers. The handle that fits fingers comfortably and the well-balanced cup bottom are quite unique. The espresso cup (90 ml), which is the smallest, is designed slightly larger than Acme’s 70 ml espresso cup so it could be also used as a demitasse. It also does not allow the coffee to spill when we gently swirl the espresso around the walls of the cup. The medium cup (150 ml) is classically sized for a cappuccino or a flat white. Its rounded base allows the espresso and milk to mix evenly and maintains the shape of the foam for a long time so that the coffee taste stays the same from the first sip to the last sip. Finally, the largest cup (280 ml) is designed for multiple purposes such as a large cappuccino, an americano and filter coffee.Images courtesy: Acme / Coffee Collective

Written by Jina Park⁠ The Milan-based tech startup Krill Design partnered with a family-owned business that manufactures various products from oranges in the Messina province of Sicily to develop a technology for collecting discarded orange peels sourced from the plant, processing them into powders and filaments that can be fed into a 3D printer and creating design products with a 3D printer. It is already supplying eco-friendly containers made from plants to major food and beverage companies in Italy such as Autogrill and San Pellegrino.The recently launched “Ohmie” lamp is also a design product manufactured by 3D printing with filaments made from orange peels. It offers great durability and excellent quality during its use, however, it is easily biodegradable even in a compost bin and returns to nature when it is thrown away. The “Ohmie” lamp with a height of about 23 centimeters is made from the peels of two or three oranges. It retains the natural bumpy feel and subtle citrus scent of oranges.Currently, food and beverage processing companies send discarded orange peels to a composting facility instead of letting them decompose naturally into the ground. If disposal requires expenses and a time-consuming process, how about recycling it? Orange peels are cheap and can replace non-biodegradable plastic materials.Orange peels are dried, thoroughly pulverized and homogenized, added to a biopolymeric vegetable starch base, squeezed out into the form of a filament and printed with a 3D printer programmed by a computer. Krill Design, which has mainly designed tableware and containers for food and beverages that can be easily shaped, is currently developing a more advanced mixing technology of orange peel material so that it can be recycled into a natural fertilizer or biofuel for the local community, when thrown away after use.Image © : Krill Design, Milano 

Written by Jina Park Two German curators — Peter Eckart and Kai Linke — teamed up to present “Spoon Archaeology” and an extensive collection of a vast variety of disposable spoons at the Dresden Museum of Arts and Crafts to retrace the evolution of the designs and functions of spoon, fork and knife in the history of Western food culture and resonate sustainable solutions for the future by questioning traditional design culture.Food culture has a lot to do with the massive amount of waste coming from disposable goods. In the Hindu culture of South Asia, people still use banana leaves as plates and eat with their hands. Most Asian countries, except for Korea, have a cultural factor more favorable for reducing waste from disposable cutlery since they cook and eat only with chopsticks, whereas people in the Western culture have a cultural habit of using a cutlery set that includes a spoon, fork and knife, leading to more waste from disposable cutlery.Disposable plastic cutlery is a product of modern culture that represents the society of single-use plastics made from petroleum that are mass-produced cheaply, used only once and easily thrown away. Is it time to say goodbye to disposable plastic cutlery forever? The two curators —Eckart and Linke — say “yes” to this through this exhibition. Plastic cutlery is a product of mankind's preference for abundance and convenience.Germany’s exhibit “Spoon Archaeology” was on display at Somerset House as part of the London Design Biennale, which took place from June 1st to June 27th, 2021.London Design Biennale 2021 © Heiko Prigge 

Written by Jina Park⁠ IKEA really knows how to attract consumers’ attention by launching ingenious products through collaborations with famous brands. This time, it focused on the trend of the increased consumption of delivery pizza and launched SÄVA — a table perfect for enjoying delivery pizza — in creative collaboration with Pizza Hut, one of global fast food chains.The SÄVA table, inspired by the three-legged pizza saver made of white plastic in the pizza box, is a practical piece of furniture that comes in a size of a pizza box. It even comes packaged in a flat brown paper box that looks like a pizza box with playful kitsch. It would only require minimal time and effort for assembling because it is very easy to assemble. As part of its collaboration, Pizza Hut will express its respect to IKEA restaurant’s legendary signature menu and traditional Swedish food by selling pizzas topped with Swedish meatballs. The SÄVA table by IKEA x Pizza Hut collaboration is the epitome of American food culture in the global era where you can enjoy Italian food on a piece of Swedish furniture. Ogilvy Hong Kong was the ad agency behind the campaign of IKEA x Pizza Hut table.Image © IKEA