Safer pint glasses on trial

Glassware manufacturer Arc International is trialling a newly developed safer pint glass in UK pubs.

The high-tech glass-based vessels have been created in partnership with consultants Design Bridge, working to a brief set by the Home Office’s Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime.

The product aims to minimise injuries by avoiding dangerous shards when broken after it was estimated that 87,000 violent incidents involving glasses occur each year in the UK.

A second major glassware firm, Utopia, has also confirmed that development of its own safer glass model is now at an advanced stage. Both firms have been working to resolve the technical challenge of putting their prototype into mass production.

Jeremy Myerson, the Helen Hamlyn professor of design at the Royal College of Art, and Alliance member, described the progress as “encouraging”, stressing: “This is a really important issue to tackle. Design has shown that it can help reduce terrible injuries and save NHS funds, and create new business for glass makers."

The project forms part of the Design Out Crime programme, a joint initiative between the Design Council and the Home Office’s Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime. Its mission is to challenge designers to convince manufacturers to rethink their products in a bid to reduce crime.

Gabriel Savage, 09.11.2010