The hospitality industry uses a huge amount of glassware, crockery, cutlery and packaging. It’s often easiest to make these items from disposable materials to save on personnel and cleaning costs. But the perception of disposables is tarnished a cheap image. During a seminar by MaterialDesign on September 18th two speakers illustrated the concept of ‘new’ disposables in an informal setting at Materia’s Inspiration Centre.
Disposables designed by Flex/the Innovationlab
Jeroen Verbrugge, co-owner of design office Flex/the Innovationlab, held a talk on the very explicit link between disposables and experience. For him, there is no implicit connection between the concept of ‘disposable’ and that of ‘low quality’. Quality doesn’t depend on the type or amount of material, but rather on the functionality of the product, as well as in its ergonomics and identity. As far as the hospitality sector is concerned, the new Grolsch bottle is a good example of brand modernisation. This revamped design led to far more sales being realised. In another project, cheap and disposable cutlery transcends the image of disposability. Its colour, appearance and tactile characteristics suggest high quality.
KLM
Marjo Broertjes, Corporate Social Responsibility specialist for KLM, explained how the airline uses disposables. Half of all the weight reserved for catering is used for trolleys, drawers, cupboards and so on. Of course, every extra litre of fuel needed adds to costs, but, up in the air, quality and presentation are also important. The business class tableware designed by Marcel Wanders is a nice compromise: the porcelain and metal cutlery is kept but the salad bowl, which used to be porcelain too, has been replaced by a beautiful engraved plastic container. The trays are reused and discarded after about fifty flights, but they are covered for each meal with rugs depicting Dutch art to strengthen the perception. The discerning business class traveller still, however requires wine to come in a (relatively) heavy glass bottle. Experiments with cardboard packaging, however beautifully they are printed and decorated, have not caught on with the Dutch gourmet.
Interested in more on Leisure & Hospitality? See all our themed events here. The current theme runs until the end of October. From November, we will be taking a look at The Office.