The Electrolux UltraSilencer ultra-quiet vacuum cleaner made from 55 per cent recycled plastics and using a 35 per cent more efficient engine than the average 2000W vacuum cleaner has won the prestigious Design Award™| Sustainability in the 2011 Australian International Design Awards.

Presented by Good Design Australia, the Australian International Design Awards is Australia's foremost design endorsement scheme, rewarding companies that differentiate their products and services through design.

The Ultrasilencer Green vacuum cleaner won over judges with its energy efficiency, responsible materials use and low noise emission to take out the 2011 Design Award™
for Sustainability.

"Addressing its biggest life cycle impacts of energy consumption, materials use and embodied energy,this product is 35% more efficient and uses 55% recycled plastic in its manufacture. But its quietness will be what wins the hearts of parents with young children," the judges commented.

Said to be the 'quietest vacuum cleaner ever', producing sound at a record low noise level of 68 dB(A), the UltraSilencer Green features a special Aeropro nozzle system for powerful dust and dirt pickup, and Clean Air HEPA 13 filtration to help ensure clean air in the home.

Brandon Gien, Managing Director of Good Design Australia said all 232 entries in the 2011 Australian International Design Awards underwent a thorough physical inspection assessing form, function, quality, safety, sustainability, innovation and best in class design.

"Good Design Australia is committed to creating a better Australia where good design is ubiquitous and leads to a better, safer, more beautiful and sustainable world," Gien said.

"To win the Design Award™ | Sustainability, one product needs to demonstrate that little bit extra for the environment," he said, adding that nine additional criteria including product need, durability and longevity, energy and water efficiency during manufacture and use and packaging minimisation, were assessed by the judges.

"This year the Electrolux UltraSilencer Green passed our stringent criteria to represent best practice Design for Sustainability and be a deserving winner of this special award."

Julian Huitfeld, Product Marketing Manager said it was a great endorsement of a well designed product and was delighted to accept the award on behalf of the company.

“ We are the only appliance manufacturer with a complete green offering and we expect this is the first step of what will become a benchmark in appliances in the future “.

“Sometimes beauty can be a call to action. Here, the call to action is to follow some simple rules of planetary housekeeping, but in a larger sense the call to action is to follow the strange voices of inspiration, of compulsion, for the real opposite of beauty is indifference.”

For the past decade Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang have collected over two tons of plastic trash from a single beach along Point Reyes National Seashore. By transforming plastic debris into works of art, the artists raise awareness of the sheer variety and ubiquity of plastic trash and its impact on delicate marine ecosystems.

More information about the Langs' work can be found on their website Beach Plastic and blog Plastic Forever.

There are no exact figures on how much plastic is being recycled.

According to the report “The Compelling facts About Plastics 2009, an analysis of European plastics production, demand and recovery for 2008” about 20 percent of consumer plastic is recycled in Europe”, the differences within in this region of the world are also great.

Ramsvik, near Smögen and Kungshamn, is one of the first sites where Electrolux has started to collect plastic debris for the Vac from the Sea project. Last week we joined the local community cleaning initiative and went out in the Skagerrak archipelago to gather ocean garbage.

Each year, large amounts of debris drift ashore along the Bohuslän coast in Sweden. Streams from the North Sea and Baltic Sea shove the floating debris to Skagerrak, where it is collected and blown ashore on our coast. The bulk of the material is not biodegradable and made up to 80% of plastic, but also oil, chemical and medical waste and military items occur. It is stored in banks mixed with seaweed and grass in the coves and in rock crevices.

More info and images to come!

Welcome to Vac from the Sea,

Our oceans are filled with plastic waste. Yet on land, there is a shortage of recycled plastic.

The supply of sustainable raw material, such as recycled plastic, is crucial for making sustainable appliances, and assisting consumers in making their homes greener.

I therefore hope you will join us in raising awareness about the threat plastic poses to marine habitats, and the urgent need for taking better care of the plastic that already exists.

Hans Stråberg President and CEO, Electrolux