As the light gets lower and the days grow shorter, sunglasses become less of a summer fling and more of an everyday essential. When the world was more naive, entrepreneurs made sustainable shades out of wood. Now the The Avantguard—a woman-owned luxury eyewear brand founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Faiza Seth—is betting that the accessory you reach for most should also be the one you feel best about. Its new Autumn/Winter Edit shows how eco-luxury can be more than a mood board: it can be a measurable design choice.

Materials with intent. Instead of relying on virgin, petroleum-based plastics, The Avantguard frames are crafted from biodegradable, recycled, and plant-based acetates. The goal: cut fossil inputs, keep the hand-feel and durability luxury frames demand, and design from the start for lower impact.

Every pair ships with UV400 lenses for full-spectrum UV defense and blue-light protection—a detail that traces back to Seth’s personal experience with early-stage cataracts and her desire to blend medical prudence with everyday elegance. Circular by design. Beyond the frames, the brand leans into plastic-free, recyclable, and reusable packaging and a partnership with AirRobe, which makes it easy to resell or rehome glasses for a second life. That’s a practical nudge toward longevity and waste reduction.

Luxury that lasts. The collection favors timeless silhouettes over trend churn—an underrated sustainability lever. As Seth puts it: “For me, it’s about buying better, buying less, and investing in products that stand the test of time.”

From rich tortoiseshells to smoky, translucent hues, the palette channels changing light, bark, loam, and sky—frames that feel at home on a forest walk or a weekday commute.

Why this qualifies as a sustainable idea (not just sustainable styling)

Material substitution: shifting from conventional plastics to plant-based/biodegradable and recycled acetates reduces dependence on virgin petrochemistry. Use-phase health benefit: UV400 + blue-light filtering supports long, frequent wear—extending product life by making the functional case for sunglasses year-round. System thinking: circular pathways (resale/rehome) and low-waste packaging mean the sustainability story doesn’t stop at checkout. Durability and design for keeps: classic silhouettes curb the “buy-discard-repeat” loop that dominates accessories.

The Avantguard’s Autumn/Winter Edit doesn’t treat sustainability as a seasonal color; it treats it as a product requirement—materials, packaging, and circularity all pulling in the same direction. If eco-luxury is to mean anything in 2025, it should look a lot like this: fewer, better things that protect your eyes, respect the planet, and still feel beautiful in the hand.

Editor’s note: we will update readers after hands-on testing of a pair from the Autumn Edit.

::Avantguard

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Nylon’s dirty little secret? It sticks around. From fishing nets to yoga pants, nylon takes decades to degrade—especially in oceans—choking marine life and clogging ecosystems. But a Korean research team has just pulled off a sustainability moonshot: a new polyester-amide (PEA) plastic that acts like nylon, but disappears like magic—breaking down 92% in real ocean water within a year.

Developed by a powerhouse team from KRICT, Inha University, and Sogang University, the new PEA is built for the real world: flexible, strong, heat-resistant, and ready for mass production. You can iron it at 150°C, use it to lift 10 kg, and make everything from fishing nets to food wrap—and then let it quietly decompose when it’s done.

Related: This plastic packaging is made from corn

What makes this different from the “biodegradable” hype you’ve heard before? Most so-called green plastics fall apart too soon or not at all. PLA, for example, barely degrades in marine water (0.1%). The new PEA? 92.1%. That’s not a typo.

And it’s not just smart science—it’s smart supply chain. The polymer is made using castor oil (a non-edible crop) and recycled nylon waste, slashing carbon emissions to about one-third that of virgin nylon 6. No toxic solvents required, and it can be cooked up in standard polyester factories with just minor tweaks.

The results were published in the March 2025 issue of Advanced Materials and are already turning heads. Expect industrial adoption within two years.

“This material does what no other biodegradable plastic could,” said Dr. Sungbae Park, co-lead on the project. “It’s tough, it’s scalable, and it knows when to vanish.”

Finally, a plastic that knows when to leave the party.

The post Korea’s New Plastic Eats Itself in the Ocean—Without Losing Its Strength appeared first on Green Prophet.

Michael Pollan, in Defence of Food, once called Americans “corn people” for the amount of corn products in their diet. As the world fights to find viable alternatives to plastics, the people may have found the best bio-polymer, made from… corn.

Corn Next has officially launched CornNext-17, a game-changing bio-based material designed to combat the global plastic pollution crisis. CornNext-17 says it can replace traditional plastics. Derived from renewable corn starch, CornNext-17 utilizes a patented fermentation-based process to create a fully biodegradable material with superior versatility and performance.

Related: this edibles company uses Tipa’s biodegradable plastics

Unlike traditional plastics and bio-plastics such as PLA and PHA, CornNext-17 retains its natural polysaccharide structure, enabling rapid decomposition within 30 days in natural environments while maintaining the mechanical properties necessary for diverse applications. We all know that most plastics are never really recycled and when they are the process is toxic. The only solution to the plastic problem is a bio-based plastic. One that can fully decompose and degrade, not just break down into littler bits of plastic.

“CornNext-17 represents a significant leap forward in sustainable materials,” said Randy Yongzhong Zhang, Founder and CEO of Corn Next. “We are proud to offer a solution that addresses the urgent need for environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional plastics. The development of CornNext-17 is guided by our vision to revolutionize how materials are used and discarded. As a fully natural biodegradable innovation, it marks not just a breakthrough in material science, but a significant milestone in humanity’s pursuit of a greener, more sustainable future.”

Key Features of CornNext-17

• Fully Biodegradable: Decomposes naturally within 30 days, leaving no harmful residues.
• Versatile: Suitable for a wide range of applications, including packaging, consumer goods, and industrial components.
• Cost-Effective: Produced through an efficient manufacturing process, offering competitive pricing.
• High Performance: Exhibits excellent mechanical properties, including strength, flexibility, and heat resistance.
• Eco-Friendly: Derived from renewable corn starch and produced without harmful chemicals.

Market Potential and Industrial Applications

CornNext-17 has the potential to transform multiple industries by replacing traditional plastics with a sustainable alternative:

• Consumer Goods: CornNext-17 is ideal for creating compostable tableware, single-use products, food containers, and eco-friendly packaging solutions that cater to environmentally conscious consumers.
• Packaging Industry: The material’s strength, flexibility, and resistance to heat and moisture make it a superior choice for biodegradable packaging, including retail, food, and industrial applications.
• Agriculture: CornNext-17 can be used to manufacture biodegradable mulch films, seedling trays, and irrigation components, reducing waste and enhancing soil health.
• Medical and Healthcare: With its ability to decompose fully, CornNext-17 is well-suited for disposable medical supplies such as gloves, syringes, and packaging, ensuring environmental safety.
• Automotive: Lightweight and durable, CornNext-17 can be utilized in creating automotive components such as panels, trim, and interior parts, contributing to vehicle sustainability and fuel efficiency.
• Electronics: As a biodegradable alternative, CornNext-17 can replace certain plastic components in electronics, helping reduce electronic waste.

The global push for environmentally sustainable materials positions CornNext-17 to capitalize on increasing regulatory support and consumer demand for green products. Its adaptability, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendly properties provide a competitive edge in addressing the growing plastic pollution crisis.

Corn Next (or Y & J World Inc.) is a biotech company based in Irvine, California and is dedicated to eliminating plastic pollution. Their bio-based material CornNext-17 is a patented, 100% natural, biodegradable material derived from renewable corn starch.

Unlike traditional plastics, CornNext-17 fully decomposes within 30 days without leaving toxins or requiring costly recycling. After eight years of R&D, the company transformed CornNext-17 into a granular form, securing our proprietary technology and expanding its applications. This innovation led to the world’s first corn-based drinking straw, protein spoon, dinner knife, and forks, with future uses in utensils, dental floss, packaging and more

Corn-based plastics for packaging is a market which reached a market size valued at USD 0.56 Billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 1.20 Billion by 2030. 

Bioplastics are derived from renewable biomass sources such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, algae and recycled food waste. Fashion designers like Stella McCartney use bioplastics in fashion, thanks to companies like Balena, which develop a bio-based raw material that looks and acts like rubber but which decomposes at the end of its life.

::Corn Next

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Balena, which develops a soft recycled plastic that can be used for shoes and other fashion items, announces its release of our first material-made limited-edition handbag in collaboration with Lemon Jelly. The company has collaborated with companies such as Vivo Barefoot in the recent past.

The company first revealed a compostable shoe in 2022 and then went on to create or develop a B2B model where it offers the soft and flexible bioplastic to a range of companies in the fashion industry. It’s an antidote to fast fashion.

Balena and Lemon Jelly have created the NYSSA bag—crafted from BioCirflex, Balena’s proprietary biobased material—which is fully compostable or recyclable, creating a breakthrough in sustainable design and circular fashion. Let it go to waste in the compost bin or bring back into the cycle of plastics. They have circularity in the bag!

“Designed to be both durable and biodegradable,” says Balena, the company, “the NYSSA bag embodies circularity. It’s available exclusively online in deep black and amber yellow, with a sleek matte finish, launching worldwide at the end of November. This collaboration celebrates the strengths of both Balena’s material science innovation and Lemon Jelly’s commitment to responsible fashion.”

International materials science specialist Balena has also partnered with UK’s 3D-print label Variable Seams to showcase the “durability and wearability of Flextex3D, which enables the 3D printing of fabrics and garments.”

Earlier this year they partnered with Zulu Kuki, known for his boundary-pushing creativity and deep appreciation for cultural influences, and who has taken footwear design to a new level with this collaboration.

His design philosophy, inspired by automotive culture—specifically the sleek, functional lines of 70s racing cars like the Porsche 935—translates into a shoe that is both visually striking and functionally advanced. This shoe is more than a fashion statement; it’s a reflection of a future where innovation meets sustainability.

The Lemon Jelly bag costs 90 Euros and you can pre-order it in black or beige here.

Below are some images of shoes created with Kitty Shukman and Balena.

The post Does Balena and Lemon Jelly make the world’s first circular handbag? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sustainability isn’t a buzzword. It’s a way of running a company in a way that privileges the planet’s future. Whether your company is big or small, climate change will affect everyone, and with resources depleting and temperatures rising it’s more important than ever for businesses across all industries to adopt sustainable practices. Large corporations typically will have entire divisions devoted to sustainability action plans, so as a small business, it might seem daunting to balance resources and labour to make your business more sustainable. 

With the right implementation, sustainability is not only possible but also practical and beneficial for the long-term success of your company. This article will have a look at why sustainability matters, address challenges for small businesses and make practical tips for recommendations on what you can do to directly implement sustainable practices that’ll help your business and carbon footprint.

Practical Tips for Sustainability

Luckily, it’s not “all-or-nothing” for sustainability. Small changes that can be made in a business week that are equal parts sustainable and manageable can make a massive difference to how your company operates and how it looks to business partners.

Switch to Eco-Friendly Packaging and Supplies

Using sustainable packaging for your products is a great way to signal to customers that you’re taking steps to be sustainable. This can include using paper-based materials or compostable packaging to minimise plastic use. If your business relies on deliveries, this can make a significant difference to your overall sustainability for a small increase in packaging costs. 

Many customers are willing to pay a little extra for products that are packaged sustainably because more and more people are voting with their wallets when it comes to going green. Consulting giant PWC found that consumers are willing to spend more on sustainably produced goods to be more sustainable, so saving the planet might save your bottom line, too!

In terms of office supplies, using biodegradable lanyards for your employees is an easy way to switch to eco-friendly materials and reduce waste, as the standard plastic used takes centuries to break down in landfills, not to mention novel concerns about microplastics.

Partner with Local Sustainability Initiatives

Another practical change is supporting initiatives through the local community. The major advantage small businesses have over larger corporations is being able to forge and maintain strong bonds with individuals and local organisations through partnering with local sustainability initiatives. Things like local cleanups, tree planting, or community gardening days can all be great ways to get to know people who are interested in helping the planet and can demonstrate genuine commitment to the cause. 

Greenwashing is something to look out for. Defined by the clean energy regulator as when “a company makes itself, its products or services seem more environmentally friendly, sustainable or ethical than they are.” Big corporations are constantly being called out for greenwashing, so getting into grassroots movements can be a surefire way to signal that you are genuine about making your small business sustainable, and customers are sure to follow.

Why Sustainability Matters

Sustainability, at its core, is about longevity. The planet is in a state of disrepair as a direct result of our actions since the Industrial Revolution, so it’s our job to help fix the problems that we have inherited and continue to create. After all, profit margins and salaries mean nothing if there’s nowhere left to spend the money. Modern consumers are increasingly aware of how brands prioritise the environment and are also not afraid to blast brands that greenwash on social media. Being genuinely sustainable means attracting more loyal customers and enhancing your brand’s relationship with consumers. 

Sustainable practices also make sense from a long-term cost standpoint. Sure, upgrading to LEDs can be costly in the short term, but over time the savings on your electricity bill more than make up for this upgrade expense. It can also help to get ahead of regulatory pressure – depending on where you’re operating, it may only be a matter of time before many environmental regulations become mandatory and your upgrades haven’t been priced into the current financial year.

Barriers to Change for Small Businesses

It’s important to take a step back and acknowledge the issues with making these changes for small businesses. Unlike corporations, capital is limited, and making choices that don’t lead to short-term gains can be unpopular, especially if your funding is limited to a handful of investors who may have a larger say in what happens to their money. Sole traders and small partnerships also suffer from wearing many hats in their roles: despite a company owner being a veteran in their field, marketing or customer service may not be their strong suit and these are both important aspects of how to “sell” your move to sustainable practices. 

None of this is cheap, either. Being certified by third-party green companies is a cost with no immediate return. Switching suppliers can be time-consuming and difficult, and may result in a less favourable contract, with the benefits only being evident in the long run. As a result, it can feel like an impossible task to take on all of these roles and challenges and come away as a successful, sustainable business. On top of all of this, it can seem like an uphill battle against corporations with stacks of cash to throw at their latest eco-friendly venture, but it’s important to remember that some of the best changes that you can make are in one-on-one interactions with local customers. 

At the end of the day, the corporation is a faceless entity, and you are not. Every change you make can directly affect your community and how people in it view your company, so changes can be magnitudes more effective for this reason. Making small, manageable changes can be a great way to begin making impacts over time, and your efforts are sure to be noticed if they are done earnestly. Sustainability comes with its own set of challenges, but it opens up a slew of opportunities for growth and engagement. You can lead by example and change consumer hearts and minds, one sustainable choice at a time.

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Vivobarefoot is a wildly popular shoe brand founded by Galahad and Asher Clark of the Clark shoes empire. The shoes are outrageously expensive ––about twice the price of leading fashion sports brands such as Nike, yet loyal customers come back time and time again to buy shoes that give the most true-to-barefoot experience in a shoe.

Vivo is now collaborating with an Israeli-Italian company Balena which is making a method and material so that shoes at the end of their lives will compost. It should be said that even the plastic parts of Vivo’s shows start to disintegrate anyway after a year.

What are barefoot shoes?

They have wide area for your toes to open out. The soles have zero padding, and just a thin layer of rubber between your foot and the world. No support. Because “you are the technology” as the slogan goes. Our feet, essentially, are built to support our backs and bodies. Modern shoes, Vivobarefoot claims, can actually damage your feet and body by changing your gate, and by putting pressure on areas of your body when running like your knees.

My son has been wearing Vivo shoes for 7 years and so have I. The rubber on the soles of the shoes wear out before the rest of the shoe. So if rubber and plastics aren’t going to last a lifetime, we can say it’s time to usher in the idea of footwear that can melt back to the earth.

Vivobarefoot says they have been prototyping 3D-printed footwear since 2019. Brand co-founder Asher Clark previously called the development of a 3D-printed shoe “an obsession”. The process involves 3D-printing the harder parts of the shoe such as the sole, then 3D-knitting the upper part. By 3-D printing, essentially shoes can be customized to a customer’s foot in the color choice they want.

Read related: the 10 best marathons in the Middle East

By making shoes to measure, less material is wasted and product longevity is likely enhanced due to the shoes fitting the wearer perfectly. This translates to reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the product value chain, according to companies that assess product life cycle.

Through its new partnership with Balena, Vivobarefoot is aiming to create 3D-printed shoes made with material that is both compostable and recyclable. Balena will apply its ‘BioCir flex’ material to the partnership. This material includes at least 50% bio-based content.

VivoBarefoot’s Clark said: “The world doesn’t need new shoes. We need a new system and new materials.”

Banela’s founder David Roubach said that there “is a need to advocate for a clearer circular economy model with a fundamental change in the materials we use” to reduce waste in this sector.

Billions of pairs of shoes are made globally each year. And most of these get thrown out as a by-product of fast fashion. That’s why there are so many flipflops in the Syechelles. If you have a business idea to work with a biodegradable material for rubber ducks and flipflops on a cruise line, you have a new impact company.

More on Balena here.

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We’ve seen some pretty interesting shoes on Green Prophet, such as these tongue shoes from Israeli designer Kobi Levi and these nature-friendly vegan shoes, but we would never have thought about sprouting new life from smelly worn shoes. OAT Shoes from the Netherlands did, and they’ve been awarded a ton of prize money for their ingenuity. Still in the conceptual stage and barely off the runway, it will be a long time before we see these in the Middle East. But hey, I’d walk 500 miles to be the gal who wears biodegradable shoes.This brand-new shoe design combines sleek style and biodegradable materials to produce sneakers that leave no mark on the environment when thrown out.

“Bury them in the garden, woods or compost, water regularly and flowers will bloom from your old kicks.”

Christiaan Maats from Delfzijl studied Industrial Design in Delft. He then immersed himself in the idea of storytelling through product design in Sydney, Australia before moving to Amsterdam to make some shoes that didn’t compromise his respect for nature.

His sidekick Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn from Western Holland studied in Delft and then worked in a pop-up nightclub made from recycled materials before working with Uran Utangs in Indonesia.

Together they created a product that went from zero to one hundred directly after their original launch, clinching second prize at the Green Fashion Awards during Amsterdam’s International Fashion week. They come is several colors and were born out of endless hours of research and testing.

This team expresses their vision as such:

“The future of fashion lies in a reconciliation between nature and industry. OAT Shoes strives to lead the way to that future.”

:: OAT Shoes

Green shoes in the Middle East:

Are Kobi Levi’s Tongue Shoes Fit For Dancing?

NIKE Shoe Recycling In Israel

Natalie’s Vegan Feet

The post Grow A Flower In Your Worn Out OAT Shoes appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sanserif Creatius is not the first designer to notice the jewels that comprise ancient Arabic art, design, and architecture. Mey and Boaz Khan made these lovely ecoolers that mimic ancient Arabic detail and ecological awareness, Hassan Fathy built sustainable structures that cherished the genius simplicity of old, and even Foster & Partners borrow extensively from the past. But what is most remarkable about the Mustafá table is the material out of which it was carved. Designed to be versatile and to conjure up the genie of the lamp or A thousand and one night stories from the original tale Scheherazade, this beautiful table is carved out of several layers of corrugated cardboard. Part of a larger, exclusive series, the layers create a multifoil or scalloped arch.

Scalloped arches feature prominently in Arabic architecture, but why would a Valencia-based designer care to represent this legacy?

According to the artists:

Spain keeps and maintains a legacy of Arabic culture and traditions. The arts and crafts held for generations. Relying on their standard of beauty and applying their knowledge, rescue and reproduce elements of this style, integrating and adapting to modern times. Arab architecture –and furniture too- has been one of the most beautiful in the world because of it’s lavish design and beauty. Summarizing and reflecting the best possible way, the wealth of other influences found. That’s the real inspiration of Mustafá table.

Sanserif Creatius, then, has taken up the Spanish tradition of preserving the Arabic tradition, in a way that has strong social benefits. The designer Ana Yago is especially committed to finding sustainable solutions to societal needs while always fostering cooperation, respect and coexistence.

More Arabic-inspired design from the Middle East:

Top 5 Arab Sustainable Designers

Interview With Abu Dhabi’s Most Innovative Design Couple

Interview With Egyptian Eco-Fashion Designer Nadia Nour

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Salon Mazal’s eco-activists may be a little extreme, but they can still teach you some cool recycled crafts.

Salon Mazal, an information center in Tel Aviv that spreads information about a whole range of issues including social change, human rights, animal rights, consumerism, feminism, and gender issues, is known for bringing together a collective of passionate, dedicated people. Sometimes this passion verges on the extremely idealistic side and leads the folks at Salon Mazal to do odd things like open up vegan bars, but they nevertheless want the right things. And one of the things they want is for people to reuse and recycle, which is why they’re hosting a free DIY recycled craft workshop this Tuesday, September 28th.

The emphasis of the workshop will be to upcycle materials that are not currently collected and recycled by the Tel Aviv (or any other Israeli) Municipality.

Operated by Sigi and Galia Nachmani at Salon Mazal (32 Yitzhak Sade Street, Tel Aviv) at 7:30pm, the workshop will teach participants how to create baskets, bags, and more with just some plastic bags and creativity. No other materials or tools will be used in transforming this ubiquitous material into knitted bags, bowls, baskets, belts, boxes and more.

Another material that will be used during the workshop is old video cassettes, which will also be transformed into baskets and bowls.

Participants will also be taught about the importance of preserving the environment and the ease with which materials such as styrofoam, glass shards, soap residues, and video cassettes can be recycled.

Image via: Salon Mazal

: Salon Mazal

Read more about Salon Mazal:
Salon Mazal for Anarchists, Idealists and Ecologists
New Tel Aviv Bar The Rogatka Takes Veganism to the Extreme
Dumpster Diving, Tel Aviv Style

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In the battle against plastic bags, the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water has started taking a more fun approach.

As part of its mission to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags from the UAE by 2012, the Ministry of Environment and Water will soon release an animated movie that promotes eco-friendly alternatives.  The Ministry is hoping that this more accessible and fun approach will encourage people to stop using plastic bags.  The film is part of a larger campaign, the Emirates Free from Plastics Initiative, that has already been active and which hopes to educate the public about the damages caused by plastic bags.

The rate of plastic bag consumption in the UAE currently hovers around two billion plastic bags a year, a number that the Ministry is attempting to reduce to zero over the next year and a half.

A survey released this week by the Ministry showed that 85 percent of UAE residents had heard or read about the negative effects of plastic bags but that fewer than half do anything about it.  Though this appears to be a negative statistic, there is a green/silver lining.  93 percent of UAE residents said that they would support efforts to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Khalid Al Sa’edi, the Director of the Awareness Department at the Ministry, said that the new animated film will promote reusable bags and depict how plastic bags threaten natural resources, the wilderness, and wildlife.

As a follow-up to the animated film, the Ministry will distribute around 35,000 biodegradable bags next month to visitors at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference.

Image via: Ars Electronica

: The National

Read more about environmental campaigns in the UAE::
Zonzoo Gives Old Phones New Life in the UAE
Canadian Man Revolutionizes Sharjah, UAE with Recycling
UAE Scholars and Imams Speak Up for the Environment

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