Feature

The New Plat du Jour: Leftovers

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RECYCLING, THE PROCESS OF PUTTING waste materials to new uses, has been a common practice for most of human history; Plato advocated it way back in 400 BC. But it became a central and urgent concern in the modern world in the late 1960s and ’70s because of the massive amounts of waste that industrial economies were producing. Soon, just recycling wasn’t sufficient. In the 1990s William McDonough and Michael Braungart began preaching the doctrine of cradle to cradle. It wasn’t enough to reuse; they proposed a closed loop, creating products that may be continually reused and recycled. Today, that concept has morphed into the now-popular circular economy, a business philosophy that aims to move industry from a take-make-dispose model to one where materials are continuously repurposed. New technology has been essential. But designers from around the world have seized the moment and are taking the concept into new territories.

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Glass Revival
Rising design star Sebastian Herkner took advantage of a new material called Glaskeramik, produced by German manufacturer Magna, to create a series of tables for Pulpo, another German company. Glaskeramik is 100 percent waste from industrial and bottle glass production. After it’s turned into a product, it can be recycled again, creating the desired endless loop. Herkner’s collection of tables, Font, is the first furniture made from this material. The tables come in a range of sizes and colors.
sebastianherkner.com / pulpoproducts.com

Font tables by Sebastian Herkner for Pulpo, 2016, in Glaskeramik, a 100 percent recycled glass composite. Courtesy Pulpo

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