Thursday, December 13, 2012

GETTING TRASHY

By Claire DeWan, ASID Allied, Eco Committee Board member
KW Designs

As current trends shift toward environmentally-friendly, many products are marketed to showcase their low impact on landfills post-use. But how many products can take this a step further and turn actual trash into treasure? But wait- I’m not talking dumpster diving! Here are a few new high-end, innovative products that bring new meaning to ‘waste’!

Giovanni Barbieri takes a backwards approach with a new collection for his handcrafted Italian tile line, which are created from the dust of travertine and marble cutting. Through a laboratory process, Barbieri creates beautiful 3D hexagon reliefs, suitable for both indoors and out.
 
Pictured below, from the Engineered Marble Carved Tiles collection, more styles created from marble dust. Appropriate for indoors and out, with the exception of extreme weather conditions.
All tiles available through www.giovannibarbieri.com.

GREENTASTIC
This year 3Form released ‘100%,’ a new collection of countertop material made entirely from post-consumer recycled HDPE. HDPE- (something I had to look up the definition for), “high-density polyethylene,” is a polyethylene thermaplastic made from petroleum. Phew! No wonder I majored in Art! The breakdown is that the product is made entirely of post-consumer plastic. Hooray! Visit www.3-form.com for more information.
 
 
Less plastic in landfills and the ocean leads to a happier Earth. I’d love to share this video that I watched earlier this year that highly affected my view on our ‘throwaway’ culture.
 
 
Sometimes even recycling isn’t enough… but it’s better than nothing! So let’s keep with using those smart, earth-friendly products as much as we can!