The Design Museum, London: Reduce. Reuse. Rethink.

Last week I took myself on a trip to the Design Museum in Kensington - I'd never been before, and fancied trying something new, always excited by anything to do with design. Besides paid exhibitions, the Museum also contains free exhibits and displays, some permanent and some temporary. One such exhibit is running as part of the London Design Festival 2019, and is a project of the London-based design company PriestmanGoode on sustainability and travel, specifically via plane.

As anyone who has taken a flight in their life would know, whether long- or short-haul, there's a lot of waste that comes about from this, just in the cabin alone. Individually wrapped cutlery, plastic cups, napkins upon napkins, and even spare headphones if you've forgotten to bring your own. At the end of the flight, everything gets thrown into one bin bag and is disposed of. As described on the Design Museum website, PriestmanGoode want to 'raise awareness of how much waste is generated through air travel [...] every passenger on a long haul flight generates more than a kilogram of material waste'. As you can see in the photo above, it adds up pretty quickly!

As well as raising awareness of this issue, the display also offers numerous alternatives to get travel companies thinking about more sustainable choices for the materials they use, as well as proposing ways for flyers themselves to re-think their behaviour when it comes to waste, for example not buying bottled water at the airport. Obviously, solutions to these big problems aren't that straightforward, but it's amazing to see the directions this could go in. A large part of the displays is dedicated to alternative materials, for example making espresso cups out of injection-moulded coffee grounds, drinking straws out of hollow pasta tubes (genius!), and crockery out of wheat bran. I found all of this so eye-opening, and actually made me feel very hopeful just by the fact these ideas exist in the world.

One of the most interesting parts of the display was a prototype for a new in-flight meal tray, with detachable sections made from reusable materials, or just more sustainable options. As a bonus, I found the actual design itself to be quite beautiful. One of the best parts in my opinion were the capsules that could be used to contain vinaigrette, sauces, or even be deposited directly into hot beverages to add milk - no packaging left over!

If you find yourself near Kensington, or want to go somewhere new, I would really recommend the Design Museum. The free exhibits were well worth the visit, and the building resides right next to Holland Park, my new favourite green space in London. It's the home to both the Dutch Garden and the absolutely stunning Japanese 'Kyoto' Garden, as well as many very tame squirrels!