We all know we're supposed to recycle – to bring our own bags to the grocery store, to separate our paper from our plastic from our glass from our metal, to avoid the wretched excess of the eighties and nineties like the plague.  But some designers are taking the idea of recycling one step further, creating beautiful, functional, desirable objects from what is, essentially, garbage.  One example hails from Portuguese firm Studio Verissimo, who displayed an elegant, modern chandelier created from hundreds of used plastic coffee stirrer sticks at New York Design Week's Touch | NY exhibit.  With thousands and thousands of these sticks used every day, imagine what they could do for the planet if they made a deal with Starbucks?

Another very cool new product is the Inkuku modern chair, created by London-based designer Ryan Frank.  Frank, who hails from South Africa, found his inspiration (and his product's name) in the colorful chicken ornaments made and displayed by the Zulu people.  The chairs are constructed from what Frank playfully refers to as "free range" materials, including recycled aluminium and those nasty plastic bags.  Combined together, they form a seat that is festive, colorful and eco-friendly – albeit a bit scratchy on bare legs!