Greener cleaners are hoovering up

Eco activists have hijacked that essential household workhorse, the vacuum cleaner and are making it a mission statement for a greener clean. There’s even a cleaner made of environmentally friendly cardboard. Yes, it really works and is now on the shortlist for a prestigious American Design award (the winner to be announced in August). The designer is Jake Tyler, who graduated last year in industrial design from Loughborough University.

He’s now working full-time in Birmingham for Vax, which developed the prototype and hopes to put it into production.

Tyler cares passionately about our endangered environment. “Every year around 100 million tonnes of waste is put into UK landfill,” he says.

“We’ve got to cut this down. My cleaner is made of recycled and recyclable corrugated card but it’s fully-functional and high-powered.” Even the box is pressed immediately into service — it’s got flame-retardant panels which just pop into place around the motor.

These are a tenth of the price of plastic, can be easily replaced — and customised with felt tips.

Meanwhile the giant Swedish brand Electrolux has been making statement — “Vacs from the Sea” — in an ongoing global project to spotlight the vast amounts of potentially valuable plastic washed away by the waves. This can collect into huge and dangerous floating islands. Local volunteers garnered plastic from the beaches of different seas to fashion into cleaners which are more conceptual art than engineering.

They all have the same basic shape but the big surprise is how different the waste plastics are. The plastic for the “Pacific edition”, harvested in Hawaii, was bleached by the sun, and corroded by salt to make a fine gravel that can be lethal for fish. But plastic for the “North Sea edition” from a beach in Sweden was still vivid, a jumble of discarded bottles, packaging and even plastic buckets. These were flattened and punched into brightly coloured discs to adorn a fibreglass “body”. Mediterranean, Baltic and Indian Ocean editions are all equally idiosyncratic.

Electrolux says there is currently a shortage of good quality plastic for recycling on land, although they have launched one “green” model (from sister brand AEG) which is around four-fifths recycled plastic. They claim its low wattage motor cuts energy by half without comprising on cleaning power (£180 from currys.co.uk).

Vacuum cleaner maestro Sir James Dyson — look no bags! — does products not concepts. His new digital cleaner is a rechargeable lightweight slimline wand which you can easily wave even into high corners. Ultra-efficient, it automatically adjusts power to different cleaning needs so no energy is wasted. “Lean engineering” keeps materials to a minimum. The cleaner takes three and a half hours to recharge and the charger qualifies for an international Energy Star rating (priced £220).

Elsewhere in the home, we’ve got triple A-rated washing machines and dishwashers and efficient cleaning fluids made from natural materials. Cleaning is sure getting greener.