For the first time, this week's big Paris home show "Maison et Objet, a twice-yearly trade fair that attracts a whopping 75,000 professionals, put its spotlight on ethical issues, traceability and clean consumerism rather than froth and frivolity.

Cardboard benches, rubber-tyre pouffes and recycled glassware shared top spot with driftwood stools, recycled paper curtains and bags cut from old advertising tarpaulins.

Even the French government joined in, issuing a 50-page pamphlet in French and English that outlines the issues at stake in developing fair and ethical interior decoration. Its Memo for Fair Decoration can be consulted on www.travail-solidarite.gouv.fr/actualite-presse.

"Times are changing," said the fair's spokeswoman Veronique Thouvenin. "The trend is no longer on viewing the home as a closed cocoon, a refuge. Consumers now are outward-looking and want to weigh on the future of the planet."

Using a minimal amount of materials to help save the planet, France's Design Studio Lo crafted a smart DIY chair, sold as a flat panel of wood containing the parts to be assembled by the buyer - with no welding, no glue, no screws and less packaging.

It also offers felt slippers and bags sold flat and ready for assembly.

Dutch company Handed By showed its wide line of machine-washable baskets of all shapes and sizes woven from the plastic straps used to bind containers - a technique inspired from roadside ware found in Thailand a decade ago.

"This is the way to live, to not throw things away," managing director Pauline Grunberg told AFP. Sold worldwide the goods are also guaranteed 100 percent free of child labour and 100 percent handicraft.

While fair trade represented only 0.01 percent of trade in Europe in 2003, in France for instance the market for fair trade goods grew tenfold between 2001 and 2005. And with 31 percent of a family budget spent on the home, experts predict growing demand for ethical interior decoration

"Currently you can find mass-produced interior decoration at cut prices on supermarket shelves but with no traceability, or in top-end designer boutiques at prohibitively high prices for the very wealthy," said design trend-spotter and consultant Francois Bernard.

"But there's a growing middle-of-the range market for nifty quality goods produced in limited series that are traceable."

While advertisers, opinion-makers and marketing experts hype up responsible consumption, many European firms have been producing such goods for years.

Finland's Woodnotes since the mid-1980s have manufactured paper carpets they export to 55 countries and are now making bed-runners of hand-knitted 100 percent paper yarn. "We sell very well in Asia where the concept of LOHAS (Life Of Health And Sustainability) is very important," said manager Reijo Vuorinen.

One of Europe's more stylish furniture firms, Belgium's Ethnicraft, began its booming business with recycled wood and still uses 50 percent recycled teak for its up-market furniture. "Wood is the most eco-friendly material available," said CEO Benoit Loos.

France's Bleu Nature was founded 15 years ago by Frank Lefebvre after he found some driftwood on a beach and crafted a mirror-frame which he sold. Its stools, tables, sofas and lampshades are still made of driftwood collected on beaches a couple of times a year.

That company has offices in seven countries, including India and the United States.

Sweden's Bigso Box meanwhile began making cardboard boxes of recycled fibre-board back in the 1960s -- the line of filing and storage boxes known to consumers through Habitat stores.

"We don't advertise our green credentials," a company spokesman said. "Maybe we should, it would be good for business."

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