People Share Product Purposes That Aren't What They Were Designed For And Here's 30 Of The Best Ones

There are many approaches to creating a product. So to find out more about these practices, we contacted Chris Lefteri who's recognized throughout the world as a leading authority on materials and their application in design.

"In my work, the process starts with researching and finding materials and because it's about bringing material innovation to my clients, it's essential that we understand what the material can achieve and start designing from that," the creator of FixIts, a reusable bioplastic stick that is revolutionizing repairs and the fight against unnecessary waste and product obsolescence, told Bored Panda.

"If you play with materials, pull them apart and ask them what they want to be, then they will give you the answers. It's much more effective than designing products and then trying to fit a material into something you have already designed."

Trying to determine whether or not a particular design is good, many turn to Dieter Rams and his '10 commandments.' According to Rams, good design is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly, and involves as little design as possible.

But can we say that something is inherently bad because people found a new use for it? One that wasn't foreseen by the manufacturer?

"I love products that are misused!" Lefteri said. "People do it all the time, the back of a chair to hang clothes, a brick to hold open a door, an upturned pot as a step to reach. It's inspiring to see creativity applied in this way. My product FixIts, which is a moldable plastic that can be reused again and again, was created exactly with this in mind. It lets consumers find their own uses and be creative in how to make, mold, and mend."

Taking a broader look, Lefteri thinks that it's more and more important that we find new ways to use materials and products since the global community needs to really think about the impact we all make on our planet. "If you can reuse something rather than throwing it away then that's far better than it ending up in a landfill," Lefteri added.

And he's right. Every year, we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste into the Earth — if we put all of it on trucks, they would circle the world 24 times.

Garbage is dumped on land-based dumpsites or in the oceans and include:

• Construction waste;
• Industrial waste;
• Household waste;
• Plastic waste;
• Electronic waste;
• Radioactive waste;
• Sewage;
• Run-off waste (fertilizers, pesticides, and oil from, for example, farms running off into groundwater, rivers, oceans).

We need to do better.