1.            What it means to be an eco-designer

Used-up coffee filters, plastic bags, empty seashells or yogurt containers, and the hard inedible peels of certain fruits?These are the items that we waste away every day. Items without use, items without much value. Leftover things, stuff, scraps, the smallest pieces of waste that cannot be recycled, or, is it that we don?t bother to recycle them?

And yet, in this vast world without much of its vastness, recognized by the trash filling up in the spaces between us, there are people who use, and recreate what we throw away day to day. They are the artists. The designers. Who see light in what others call dark. Light in rancidness, putridness, and a pleasant tinkle in the air instead of rotten stink. Design is what we call beauty. Designers call it innovation. And with just the right touch of the so-called [eco-designer,] things can start to transform. Straps of banner are mended and molded to seek the form of flower-pots. Towering buildings are built – not with bricks, but with seashells. Coffee filters change their shapes into cup sleeves, while corn starch reappears as a novel cup, its value later being confirmed by MOMA.

Eco-design is a term that refers to conceptualizing, producing, and selling products without disturbing the environment, and minimizing the amount of harmful waste. Simply designing products is not the true motive the process includes all activities concerning the impacts the certain product will have on the environment until it is disposed of.

Eco-design was first defined by western scholars in the 1980s, and the scale of the field is still expanding outwards. The fundamental definition of eco-design is: to consider the effects of a certain product in the processes of production, and decreasing harmful impacts when compared to the original product.

(The pictures are at the bottom) [Ecojuncompany,] a company valuing the standards of eco-design, has recently produced what is known as the [Public Capsule]. The designer of this personal cup, or tumbler, was motivated by the way capsules for medicine are shaped. Every time a [Public Capsule] is sold, a medicine pack for Malaria is donated to children in 3^rd world countries. (Picture source: ecojuncompany and navercast)

According to [Ecojuncompany,] the designers of these products always evaluate their ideas before and after creating new products. After making novel combinations associated with eco-design, they consider what the design or the product will do to the environment.

2.           Eco-friendly products are no use?if we do not use them

Another piece of artwork from this company is the [Original Green Cup]. The designers put in a lot of consideration while conceptualizing the form of the cup, by evaluating the process of production. While creating, using, and disposing of the cup, the material is naturally decomposed when buried underground. The cup, apparently made out of starch, is also non-toxic to the human body. According to the company, the cup, unlike others, does not contain BPA, a harmful substance to our bodies.

The [Original Green Cup] has a small hole on the upper side, so you can hang the string connected to a teabag while drinking. This enables the paper part of the cup to stay clean and not get loose a truly environmental product with sides of practicality.

(Picture source: ecojuncompany)