Student has Edge with eco friendly toys

IT seems the apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the case of one U2 member’s offspring, who is spreading her wings with a line of environmentally friendly toys.

Dubliner Arran Evans, aged 24, daughter of U2 guitarist The Edge, is blazing her own trail in the creative world.

Arran from Monkstown is about to launch her innovative toy range Mulch Men. Designed for boys aged between eight and 12, the clever toys can be buried in the garden and eventually disintegrate into garden compost.

Arran, who is a final-year student of product and furniture design at Kingston University in London, said her green idea was inspired by her concern that “a lot of toys contain a whole variety of chemicals and there’s no way parents can find out what’s in them”.

Arran has created a total of 25 figurines including a landscape where the Mulch Men can live.

The real novelty of the toy lies in the fact that once children have tired of it, they can bury their Mulch Man in damp soil and within two weeks its appearance will have changed. When they become tired of the toy, they can put it back into the compost heap and after about six weeks it will decompose altogether. So, instead of the toys cluttering up the house, they will become nutrients for the garden.

“The spaceman turns into an alien, the soldier becomes a zombie and the mad scientist mutates into a goblin,” Arran said.

Course leader Simon Maidment said the brief given to students was to identify a global problem and to then design a creative and meaningful solution.

“Our dependence on oil-based plastics is clearly a serious issue, but Arran’s solution is one that will make a lot of people smile,” he said.

All the designs are set to be launched at Kingston University’s degree show from June 6-11.

Arran is no stranger to success despite her young age. She won a competition by creating the London university’s corporate gift.

She also made a name for herself with a designer cotton handbag, the Baile Bag, which are certified Fair Trade and Fair Labour.

Before going to Kingston University, Arran studied at Dublin Institute of Technology and the Art Centre in Los Angeles.