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But along with this, Corrie believes that a key component of
sustainability is to create products that will stand the test of time. “There is a clear shift in consumer preferences to buying higher quality with the expectation of keeping items for much longer,”
says Corrie. “It has always been our mantra that good design
is in itself sustainable if it means people treasure things and keep them for longer.”
Devise the Last Straw
For Arix Zalace, founder of metal straw company Lastra Life, the
need for reusable and sustainable products hits close to home. “Living on the Florida Panhandle, we see the effects of plastic
straws and other single-use plastic,” he says. “The Gulf of Mexico is quickly becoming one of the biggest plastic garbage patches in the world.”
His wife and business partner Jenifer Kuntz owns a juice bar steps from the beach, which quickly became a testing lab for straw prototypes, and customer feedback helped influence the design of today’s product line: beautiful stainless steel straws that come in several finishes. Rubbery cuffs can be bought separately and used at the top or the bottom to soften the tip or to connect two straws for a longer length.
Incorporate Organic Materials
Meanwhile, Bamboo Table launched with a goal to provide beauty into what they saw as an otherwise somewhat plain
and unadorned segment of the marketplace. Owner Sally Eckman Roberts is a well-known artist whose work is licensed
to numerous companies throughout the gift and home goods industry. Her company, which debuted in January 2019, markets a line of dinnerware made of bamboo, a biodegradeable, sustainable material. It’s meant to be an alternative to plastic. Roberts has used similar patterns and designs on her dinnerware so they coordinate with other product lines that license her designs. For example, a blue and white pineapple design also is used on hooked rugs and decorative pillows. Says Roberts, “You don’t have to sacrifice design to be good to the environment.”
The bamboo fibers used to make the dinnerware are a by-product of the manufacturing industry; in other words,
the scraps discarded from manufacturing other bamboo products, which otherwise would be discarded or incinerated. It’s dishwasher safe and has a nonporous glaze coating the surface, which protects the design. While the dinnerware is designed to last for years to come, when it does get thrown away, it’s biodegradable, unlike its plastic counterparts.
“With everyone aiming to be green and eco-friendly, people don’t want to buy a product that’s going to be on the earth for the next 400 years,” says Angela Biggs, director of marketing and public relations for Bamboo Table. “More people are accepting the fact that ignoring the environment has a detrimental effect. When we don’t put as much plastic in our landfills, we’re making our carbon footprint a little smaller.”
Q Squared by Q Home also incorporates bamboo into dinnerware. Its line is a material known as “Melaboo”—a combination of melamine and bamboo fibers, which cuts down on the amount of plastic used to produce dinnerware in a traditional melamine product. The Melaboo Potter collection, for instance, has the look and feel of stoneware, and even mimics the slightly rough texture.
Recycle and Reuse Components
Glass is infinitely recyclable, and it’s the building block for many of the products in the Sobremesa line by GreenHeart. Made in Guatemala, the recycled glass is hand-blown into wine decanters, glasses, domes, cake plates, and more. “They’re giving this old glass new life,” explains Jen Williams, national sales manager.
The company also carries a sustainable line made of wood from the Amazon: artisans hike in and carve wooden bowls on-site, using only one tree per acre, and leaving the wood scraps behind to decompose and return to the soil. They don’t return to that acre to take more wood for several decades, allowing the forest to regenerate at its own pace. >
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