Tableware goes green

It's not just a fashion trend, it's a trend that's hard to escape. Recycling and eco-design are everywhere, including in tableware. And that's a good thing! The sector, too, is taking a hard look at itself and revisiting its practices to enter the age of ecology. Brands and designers are vying with each other in their ingenuity to offer planet-friendly products that save materials, reuse what can be reused, and produce while limiting environmental impact. Some players are turning to upcycling. Brands such as Pied de Poule, YATO and Marion Mailaender's "04.91_Tableware" reuse old plates and give them a creative new lease of life. With "Renaissance", Non Sans Raison has created a range that recycles motifs from other collections, in order to limit waste in its workshops. Others prefer to explore the material route, like Revol and its "No.W" range made from recycled enamels and pastes (called Recyclay). Ekobo relies on alternative materials: after bamboo, the company has extended its skills to many other sustainable and recyclable materials (cork, rePET fabric, silicone...). Others are exploring new materials, like designer Barbara Gollackner, whose "Wasteware" creates a material based on pigskin, bread scraps mixed with mycelium to print 3D objects. Natural Material Studio does the same, but its crockery is designed with shell remains from the famous Danish restaurant Noma. Between experimentation and industrial process, tableware is not short of resources...

• Lucile Viaud reinvents local glass

• NOMA recycles ceramics

This young publishing house reuses materials to create high-end furniture and objects, proving that recycling is a noble approach. With Studio Jean-Marc Gady, NOMA turns its attention to tableware with the "Otto" collection. A tribute to the Memphis movement, it offers a range of objects (trays, cheese boards, fruit bowls, etc.) made from 97.5% recycled ceramics. This offers an original decor in a variety of colors, and is totally unique to each object, since everything depends on the materials reused during manufacture.

• Bazar d'Alger brings plates back to life

Arnold d'Alger, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, had the good idea of creating Bazar d'Alger, a workshop offering decoration on porcelain or earthenware. He uses this antique crockery (either found or entrusted to him) to develop his imagination and give free rein to his creativity. He imagines original decorations, but can also create them on request for unique collections. It's a great way to give those old plates a new lease of life and let them finally come out of the cupboard!

• Ogre La Fabrique supports tableware

French tableware that's eco-responsible and sustainable. Such is the positioning of Ogre La Fabrique, a young company created by Titaïna Bodin, which presents a deliberately timeless range, made in France, in octagonal or round shapes and available in 5 colors. Its aim is to promote and perpetuate the French tableware industry. Ogre La Fabrique offers sustainable, eco-designed products made from 100% natural materials, using old molds, and processing and recycling its production waste and porcelain paste.

• Q de Bouteilles transforms... bottles

Reuse wine bottles collected from restaurants in Le Touquet to make everyday objects. That's the idea behind Q de Bouteilles. Glasses, vases, egg cups and candles, all unique, are created from this recycled material. Not only does this reuse prevent the material from being lost, it also reinvents it and creates jobs, since each creation is made by hand. The idea is so simple and beautiful, in fact, that it has attracted the interest of Degrenne, with whom Q de Bouteilles has signed an exclusive collection.