Minix, the home appliance brand of At Home, won the ESG Design Impact Award at the Seoul Design Award 2026.
At Home said on the 16th that Minix's food waste processor "The Plender MAX" received the ESG Design Impact Award at the Seoul Design Award 2026, held on the 14th at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. The Seoul Design Award is organized by the Seoul Design Foundation.
Now in its seventh year, the Seoul Design Award is an international design competition that spotlights design for a sustainable daily life in which people, society and the environment are in harmony. Projects have been submitted from 119 countries to date. The ESG Design Impact Award recognizes companies that have created social and environmental value through design and promotes outstanding cases at home and abroad.
The winning product is a compact unit measuring 19.5 centimeters in width, featuring a track-shaped, or oval, design that allows efficient placement even in tight spaces. It also reduces the volume and moisture content of food waste, easing the burden of storage and disposal. The device achieves a reduction rate of about 96% based on 1 kilogram of vegetables, and can process 500 grams of food waste in about two hours.
Minix also recently won a final court victory against Cuckoo Electronics in a suit seeking to invalidate a design registration for a food waste processor. The Supreme Court dismissed Cuckoo Electronics' appeal without a hearing on the merits, finalizing a Patent Court ruling that had invalidated the registered design of Cuckoo Electronics' "Eco Whale" on the grounds that it was similar to the design of Minix's "The Plender."
Na Se-hoon, chief design officer and a director at At Home, said the award was all the more meaningful because it showed that the design Minix has pursued to solve the inconvenience of handling food waste can extend to environmental value. "Going forward, we will present products that go beyond solving everyday inconveniences to create tangible environmental value," Na said.