by Michael Smith
This year's Top Drawer Spring at London's Earl's Court I featured an “Eco Trail”, basically, featuring designers and small and larger companies using recycled products, sustainable ones or have made products that enable us to reuse and re-purpose, say, glass jars.
There was one problem, if you will, with the “Eco Trail” tough and that was that the “green” companies were all over the place rather than in one “green” section, regardless of what their basis is, and, hence, everything was a wee bit difficult to find as, while the isles were clear enough signposted and marked there were no number on the floor plan.
The companies in the “Eco trail were to a good enough degree those that belonged there but some clearly did not, as the products were neither, at least not as far as I could ascertain, recycled nor sustainable or Fairtrade, for that matter.
A clear and definite number of companies in the “Eco Trail”, and even outside of it, were promoting, and a good thing this is too, the bring-your-own-bag philosophy, the reusable shopping bag, and it was good to see that the good old string bag is making a comeback on this level. And about time too.
Bamboo, on the sustainable materials side, was also represented well and Green Pioneer Ltd. with the “bambu” kitchen and lifestyle accessories – including the replacement for the paper plate – had a real interesting array of bamboo products at hand. While, if I understand rightly, our brethren in the USA have already have come across the bowls and other products of this before, seeing it was “invented” over there, this is a rather new one in Britain.
Green Pioneer has won one the prestigious awards at the Top Drawer Spring 2009 for the “bambu”range or products.
I shall, hopefully, be able to bring you a review or two on the products of the range in the not too distant future (in fact I have done so by now here), as said before, and also keep you, the reader, posted (no pun intended here) as to further developments as to the “bambu” range and also anything else that Green Pioneer is going to, well, pioneer.
Another company that was doing bamboo is Wireworks, though nowadays, despite the name, it concentrates on bamboo more and rather than on wire and the products for the use in the bathroom (and elsewhere) we things of beauty to behold.
Bamboo, I must say, is a lovely material and one that can be very sustainable, as it is just, theoretically, a grass and can be cut again and again and will grow again just as vigorously as before.
Bamboo is more than likely one of the greatest sustainable wood-like product that is available and its uses are legion. The only comment one could make as regards to sustainability as far as bamboo is concerned would be the transportation costs of the made products.
When I earlier talked about the products that are enabling one to re-purpose glass jars for example a brilliant product from a company called 95% Danish though the products are actually from a Dutch company called RoyalVKB, for which they are agents in the UK.
The set of attachable “lids”, for lack of a better word, have many more applications, in my opinion, than are envisaged at present and many a glass jar could be diverted from landfill and even recycling by being re-purposed, for instance, into a glass pitcher for water or beer at table.
I hope to be able to lay my grubby mitts on a set of those as well so I can give them a proper looking over and give you, the reader, my impression on it by way of a review.
In closing here I would like to express my personal thanks also to the friendly security staff by Group 4 Security who were helpful and, well, friendly.
My thanks also to the staff at the press office for their help in all things.
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
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Green at Top Drawer Spring 2009
