Tray210 Proves Recycled Plastic Doesn’t Have to Look Grey and Boring

Recycled plastic products often fall into two camps: grey utilitarian bins or loud, speckled experiments that feel more like proof of concept than something you want on your desk. Tray210 recycled, a collaboration between Korean studio intenxiv and manufacturer INTOPS under the rmrp brand, takes a different approach, using recycled plastics and waste additives to create a tray that feels like a considered object first and an eco story second, treating material diversity as part of the design language.

Tray210 recycled is a circular tray with three compartments, an evolution of the original Tray210 form. It grew out of INTOPS’ grecipe eco-material platform and hida’s CMF proposals, which is a long way of saying it is the result of a tight loop between material science and industrial design. The goal was to pursue material diversity and break away from the cheap recycled stereotype, making something that belongs in sight rather than hidden under a desk.

Designer: Intenxiv x INTOPS

The form is intuitive, a 210 mm circle with a raised, ribbed bar running across the middle and two shallow wells on either side. The central groove is sized for pens, pencils, or chopsticks, and the ribs keep cylindrical objects from rolling away. The side compartments are open and shallow, perfect for earbuds, clips, rings, or keys. It is the kind of layout you understand at a glance without needing instructions or labels; just place your pen where the grooves are.

The material story is where Tray210 recycled gets interesting. Multiple recycled blends reflect their sources: Clam and Wood use 80 percent recycled PP with shell and wood waste, Charcoal adds 15 percent charcoal to 80 percent recycled PP, and Stone uses 10–50 percent recycled ABS. Transparent and Marble variants use recycled PC or PCABS with ceramic particles or marble-like pigment. Each colorway is visually tied to its waste stream, making the origin legible and intentional.

The aim is to create a design closer to the lifestyle rmrp pursues, breaking away from the impression recycled plastic generally gives. The Clam and Wood versions read as soft, muted pastels with fine speckling, Charcoal feels like a deep, almost architectural grey, and Stone and Transparent lean into translucency and particulate. Instead of hiding the recycled content, the CMF work uses it as texture and character, closer to terrazzo or stoneware than to injection-molded scrap that just happens to be grey.

The combination of clear zoning and tactile surfaces makes Tray210 recycled feel at home on a desk, entryway shelf, or bedside table. The central groove keeps your favorite pen or stylus always in the same place, while the side wells catch whatever tends to float around, from SD cards to jewelry. The different material stories let you pick a version that matches how you want the space to feel: calm, earthy, industrial, or a bit more playful.

A simple tray can carry a lot of design thinking, from intuitive ergonomics to material storytelling and responsible sourcing. Tray210 recycled is not trying to save the world on its own, but it does show how recycled plastic can be turned into something you actually want to touch and keep in sight. For people who care about both what an object does and what it is made from, that is a quiet but meaningful upgrade over another anonymous catch-all that eventually ends up in a drawer.

The post Tray210 Proves Recycled Plastic Doesn’t Have to Look Grey and Boring first appeared on Yanko Design.

Who Knew A Desk Organiser Could Help Increase Productivity?! The Sustainable Daizo Does!

Sustainability is becoming a crucial part of our daily lives nowadays, and Daizo stands at the forefront of eco-friendly innovation. With their focus on sustainable design and materials, Daizo brings us the Daizo Desk Organizer, a product that not only helps keep your workspace tidy but also supports the planet.

Designer: Mohit Joshi

The Daizo Desk Organizer is a shining example of how single products together can shape a sustainable future at large, made from recycled plastic PLA, a biodegradable and renewable resource. By using eco-conscious materials like recycled plastic bottle caps and cork, Daizo ensures that each organizer contributes to reducing landfill waste and minimizing the demand for virgin resources.

One of the standout features of the organizer is its compact yet highly functional design. Created to optimize small desk spaces, this organizer boasts a unique jigsaw puzzle structure with customizable sections, allowing users to arrange their desk tools in shapes that fit their needs. This flexibility transforms an ordinary desk into a more personalized, clutter-free environment, enhancing both productivity and creativity.

And as every desk warrior knows, coffee is an essential part of a productive workday. Daizo has thoughtfully integrated a built-in coaster, ensuring your coffee or drink has a designated spot while protecting your desk from spills. It’s a small but crucial detail that shows Daizo understands the real-world needs of its users.

Beyond its eco-friendly credentials, the organizer is a powerful tool for boosting productivity. A clean and organized workspace reduces distractions, helping you stay focused on the task at hand. It also promotes creativity, as a clear desk can lead to a clear mind, giving you the freedom to brainstorm and solve problems without feeling overwhelmed by clutter.

Moreover, the Daizo Desk organizer encourages healthy work habits. Maintaining an ergonomic setup and keeping your workspace clean, can prevent common issues like poor posture, eye strain, and general discomfort that often arise from cluttered, disorganized desks.

Many professionals today face challenges in keeping their workspaces organized. Limited desk space, combined with the need to store essential items, often results in clutter that hinders productivity. Daizo addresses this problem head-on with a product that is not only compact but also aesthetically pleasing. Unlike other desk organizers, which often sacrifice functionality or design, Daizo strikes a perfect balance between both.

In addition to keeping your desk in order, the Daizo Desk Organizer makes a positive impact on the environment. By using recycled plastic from bottle caps and crafting it into something both beautiful and practical, Daizo contributes to reducing landfill waste. But sustainability doesn’t end there, at the end of its life, the organizer can be recycled again, supporting the circular economy and further minimizing its carbon footprint. Daizo desk organizer is an investment in a healthier planet and a more organized, productive workspace.

The post Who Knew A Desk Organiser Could Help Increase Productivity?! The Sustainable Daizo Does! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mac mini wooden organizer stand uses a mini tambour door to hide your stuff

The Mac mini and its more powerful cousin, the Mac Studio, offer an Apple computing experience that prioritizes flexibility and your desk space over functionality you might not even need. Its compact form allows you to place it anywhere you want while also offering the freedom to connect any kind of monitor, keyboard, or peripheral you need to get done. At the same time, however, the mini PC form factor doesn’t have enough space to keep all these external devices always connected, and you will often find yourself repeatedly attaching and detaching bits and pieces as you work. Over time, these dongles, cards, and whatnot start to pile up and make a mess on your desk, which is where this handmade wooden organizer and riser comes in, offering a uniquely elegant solution to keep those tiny objects out of sight and out of mind.

Designer: Kostiantyn Andriiuk

Although Apple designed the Mac Mini and Mac Studio to stand on their own, there are some desk setups and designs that require elevating these minimalist boxes a bit higher. In fact, their small bodies make it easy to place them on top of anything, but that doesn’t mean they’ll look good on it unless that “thing” was specifically made for the mini Macs. This handcrafted riser is made to match the dimensions of the Mac mini and elevates the metal box not just in height but also in style.

Made from Cherry and Alder veneers, the wooden stand exudes a warmth that contrasts with the cold silver exterior of the Mac mini while also perfectly complementing it at the same time. Both pieces carry an air of elegance, despite their different materials and creation processes. While the Mac mini is mass-produced in a factory, each piece of this wooden riser was measured and crafted manually.

The most interesting part of the riser, however, is the drawer inside that’s hidden behind a tambour door. Unlike a simple organizer that exposes its container for everyone to see, you have to slide the row of vertical slats out of the way first before you can pull out the drawer. The mechanism offers functionality that doesn’t take away anything from the design’s aesthetics, a philosophy that is perfectly in line with Apple’s own approach to designing products.

The design for this unique and distinctive tambour organizer stand is fortunately available for everyone to follow, but the painstaking process will probably scare all but the most seasoned makers. That said, it could be a source of inspiration for other accessory makers to make their own spin on the idea, especially the brands that pay a lot of meticulous attention to details, materials, and finishes that would perfectly match an Apple product.

The post Mac mini wooden organizer stand uses a mini tambour door to hide your stuff first appeared on Yanko Design.

This tiny Micro SD card organizer is a blast from the 90s

Before CDs and DVDs revolutionized physical media in the 1990s, people mostly used floppy disks — little square pucks containing less than 2.8 megabytes of storage. If you collected a lot of floppy disks, for instance, the original release of DOOM (which released across four 3.5 inch floppy disks), you needed a place to put them. Back then, that meant keeping your disk collection in a whole bunch of beige boxes with tinted plastic coverings, locked shut with a simple mechanism.

Apparently, that design — despite its relative clunkiness and odd fit for modern offices — is nostalgic to collectors of modern physical media devices like Micro SD cards and Nintendo Switch cartridges, and, as a result, independent artist Trevor Flowers has designed his own tributes to the classic floppy disk holder design. Calling it the “Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Micro SD Cards” on his Gumroad page, this adorable replica of days gone by can fit on any desk surface thanks to its near-microscopic size.

Designer: Trevor Flowers

“Back when floppies were new we kept them safe in somewhat terrible plastic bins,” says Flowers in the description of his Micro SD card holder.

“Now that micro SD cards can hold thousands of times more data they’re what we use and what we lose! Because, smol. So, here’s a little throwback to the floppy organizer but sized for micro SD cards. I used double-sided tape to stick mine to the top of my PC monitor because I’d lose it on my messy desk.”

The Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Micro SD Cards is available to purchase on Flowers’ official Gumroad page for $22, though it seems like supplies are limited as only 37 units remain. The same is true of his Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Switch Cartridges, of which only 8 remain as I write this article. It’s unclear whether more will be constructed, though it’s worth noting the build is quite cute and may even have mass-market appeal for collectors.

Smol Floppy Disk Organizers aren’t the only unique retro design Flowers has come up with. On his page, you can find other bespoke (and somewhat larger) tributes to the TRS-80 Model III and the Osborne One.

The post This tiny Micro SD card organizer is a blast from the 90s first appeared on Yanko Design.