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Eco-awareness Shaping Western DesignRecycling has long fed African and Asian markets, where cash-poor craftsmen retool tin into toys and rubber tyres into flip-flops.
Now recycling is moulding design in the richer West as eco-awareness - or eco-guilt - shapes consumer demand.
For the first time, this week's big Paris home show "Maison et Objet, a twice-yearly trade fair that attracts a whopping 75,000 professionals, put its spotlight on ethical issues, traceability and clean consumerism rather than froth and frivolity.
Cardboard benches, rubber-tyre pouffes and recycled glassware shared top spot with driftwood stools, recycled paper curtains and bags cut from old advertising tarpaulins.
Even the French government joined in, issuing a 50-page pamphlet in French and English that outlines the issues at stake in developing fair and ethical interior decoration.
"Times are changing," said the fair's spokeswoman Veronique Thouvenin.
"The trend is no longer on viewing the home as a closed cocoon, a refuge.
Consumers now are outward-looking and want to weigh on the future of the planet."
Using a minimal amount of materials to help save the planet, France's Design Studio Lo crafted a smart DIY chair, sold as a flat panel of wood containing the parts to be assembled by the buyer - with no welding, no glue, no screws and less packaging.
more: afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkJp... (131)
17/9/2007 | Viewed 18,070 time(s)
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