A simple bucket chair made from artichoke thistle and a biological resin abstracted from yesterday’s cooking oil performs like plastic but without the damaging properties. This fantastic alternative is 100% biodegradable, no landfill sob stories around here. The designer’s name is Spyros Kizis; as an advocate for his country of Greece and its struggling economy he has come up with utilizing nationally grown thistle for such a concept. The artichoke thistle happens to produce easily in their Mediterranean soil, and so he foresaw farmers benefitting from a new demanding crop…a new opportunity for business for entrepreneurs…a saving grace from the limits of oil preserves as it also works as a biofuel. In his own words, “Manufacturers have come to depend on oil derived plastics to produce many consumer products. Global Peak Oil is predicted to occur sometime between now and 2020. With the subsequent decline in oil production, increase in demand for oil and increase in cost of oil, not to mention the environmental concerns associated with oil derived plastics, shouldn’t we be exploring more alternatives?”