Child's chair, 'Charlie', made from recycled plastic toys, designed by ecoBirdy in Antwerp, made in Italy, 2017

Child's chair, rotationally moulded from predominantly yellow-coloured recycled plastic fragments, giving it a speckled appearance. The chair has a rounded form, with sturdy legs, a broad seat and a low back. At the base of the back, where it meets the seat, there is a hole. The surface of the chair has a rough texture.

Purchased in 2018 [2018/655]

The choice of which colour chair to acquire was made after a conversation with the designers, who stated that ‘Off White’ and ‘Vanilla’ were most popular in Northern Europe, whereas ‘Strawberry’ and ‘Ocean’ were more popular in the South. It was felt that a yellow chair would be a good addition to a furniture collection which was predominantly red in colour.

Antwerp-based company ecoBirdy was founded by Vanessa Yuan and Joris Vanbriel. For their first collection, launched in January 2018, they produced a series of children’s furniture items (a chair, a table, a storage container and a lamp) all made from ecothylene, a material derived from recycled plastic children’s toys and household goods. Developing the collection involved not just designing the furniture itself, but creating an entire system for collecting and recycling toys. The resulting items are rotationally moulded in Italy. 'ecothylene' is made of 100% recycled plastic that, thanks to accurate sorting during the recycling process, makes it possible to create colourful items without adding any resin. It is completely free from any harmful substances and absolutely safe for the use of children.

The big idea behind ecoBirdy’s designs is to create a circular economy for plastic toys, introduce children to good design, and raise awareness of sustainability with children. Plastic toys are among the most intensive users of plastics among consumer goods, using on average fifteen times more plastic than food packaging. 90% of toys designed for babies and toddlers are plastic, but on average are used by a child for only four months. Most of them end up in landfill or incinerators. ecoBirdy wanted to create something useful for children over the age of four, whilst making sure that plastics already ‘spent’ on them in their early childhood would continue to be put to good use. ecoBirdy aim to collect and recycle 25,000kg of plastic toys by the end of 2018. At the time of writing they have achieved 55% of their target.

The resulting products are comfortable and attractive, with a rounded and ‘friendly’ appearance. Colour-sorting of the plastic is done using an infrared scanner, which also identifies any contamination. This part of the process results in two things: an attractive speckled appearance to the items, and no requirement to add pigments to the material for colouring.

ecoBirdy have produced a children’s book which explores plastics recycling and the ‘story’ of their products, as well as a programme of school visits to collect toys and speak with children about issues with the widespread use of plastics. As well as promoting awareness of recycling, the range aspires to discuss issues within the natural world. The storage box is shaped like a kiwi bird, the lamp like a rhinoceros. These animal-themed designs are intended to raise awareness of the plight of the represented species.

ecoBirdy have been recognised by the design community and have been awarded accolades by the Australian Good Design Award 2018 (winner in Product Design category) and the German Design Award 2019.

B.7-2018