This is a picture that will forever stay in my mind:
It’s a photo that, after seeing it, made me radically change the way I live, and I more or less stopped using cotton swabs from that day. However, I must admit that those little rascals can be quite useful when you need to clean your ears or correct your makeup. Imagine my sheer joy when I came across LastSwab from LastObject. This is #sustainablesolutions at it’s very best.
What realization made you start LastObject? Where did the idea come from?
LastSwab was started by the designers Nicolas & Isabel Aagaard and Kaare Frandsen interest in the zero waste movement and their desire to make a contribution to it by designing objects to reduce the use of single use items. They were among many other projects inspired by the product FinalStraw, also launched on Kickstarter, and worked on a couple of other ideas before coming up with LastSwab.
How did you get started?
LastSwab was launched on Kickstarter and reached funding within 20 mins. We’ve since launched the product LastTissue, and this is in production now. We plan to start shipping it in June.
What products do you currently have and are there plans for other ones?
LastSwap and LastTissue. There are many more products planned, and we hope to be able to launch at least one more this year. All products will be reusable personal hygiene products replacing single use items. It’s essential to us that a product prototype is durable and functional, and we’ve had a few good ideas that we’ve so far not been able to launch, simply because we’ve not been absolutely sure of it’s long term durability.
What are your products made out of?
The LastSwab is made of tpe (the tips), nylon (the rod) and the corn based biodegradable material PLA (the case). 1 LastSwab is made to replace 1000 single use swabs 🙂
LastTissue is made of silicone (the case) and 100% ecological cotton (the tissues). A pack of LastTissue is made to replace over 2800 single use tissues 🙂
What are your top three tips on how to become a green eco-warrior?
We are inspired by the waste management hierarchy
Reduce – Reuse – Recycle, in that order.
So our number one, two and three would be: Ask ourselves, can the thing we are purchasing be avoided or replaced by a reusable item?