Mária Pospíšilová
By an increase in the quality of life, people usually imagine nice “things” such as material sufficiency, a varied range of goods and services, accessible travel, a better environment. However, as the saying goes, “there are two sides to every coin”. The other side of today’s prosperity which is dominant in so-called developed countries is the over-production of waste, the pollution of the environment, the abuse of cheap labour. It is only possible to turn around this situation with a conscientious approach to production. There are more and more young people in the community of designers who follow the path of a sustainable future in their design, and develop ecological materials themselves. This article presents Zuzana Gombošová and her malai – vegan leather; the work of the designer Ján Forgáč who makes chairs of a biodegradable material based on dried grass; the designer Denisa Slivovičová, who made biocomposite materials out of food industry and used it in her furniture and home furnishings. To conclude, we present Vlasta Kubušová & Miroslav Král, who offer bioplast solutions for added value products under the NUATAN brand. They made fashion accessories out of biologically degradable plastic, developed by a team of scientists around professor Alexy of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.