With the Copenhagen summit on and everyone talking about global warming and figuring ways to tackle the environmental hazards at the Vancouver Winter Games, new ways and schemes have been thought of to spread awareness. They believe that the beverage bottles are not entirely a waste after the beverage is over. Nicola Kettlitz, general manager of the Coca-Cola Olympic Project team that they will also turn the recycled plastic into toques, scarves and vests to go back to the Ray-Cam community centre. Also the bottles consumed at the venue will go to build an outdoor sports court in the poverty-ridden Downtown Eastside. It’s a $350,000 investment in the inner city. “The Games have been a catalyst, but they alone are not the end result. It’s what we do afterwards that makes the difference” Mary McNeil, the B.C. Minister of State for the Olympics was quoted saying.
[CTV Olympics]
With so many talks happening over e-waste and how it is a major problem that needs urgent looking into, it was high time someone came up with an interesting solution such as this. Junk-metal artist Gabriel Dinshaw, is the man in question and his creativity really has no bounds I guess. Even if the old and spoilt motherboard is nothing but a piece of useless metal trash, he looked deeper and observed the gold, silver and copper materials in these circuit boards to creating stuff from the dangling earrings to the short skivvies. These up scaled designs were mainly created to impart awareness about technological wastes such as e-waste, mining industry and over consumption.
This amazingly stunning looking necklace is actually been made out of the circuit boards, and of course a little bit of magnet and sterling silver to complete the whole design.
The White Goat munches up all your useless paper and reproduces toilet paper. And no, we aren’t speaking about a four legged grass munching animal. The White Goat is actually a contraption that the Japanese came up with, that transforms normal paper into toilet paper, without using magic. This might sound silly, but then again, it can be useful in office environments where tons of paper go waste, and toilet paper is required too. These paper converting machines have hit the assembly line and you can get yourself one of them soon. To make you a roll of toilet paper, feed the White Goat around 40 sheets of paper and watch it go.
Spending a holiday in an airplane may sound outrageous to some, but then again, isn’t this a cool way to recycle old airplane shells? The guys in Netherlands had a brainwave and have converted a cold war aircraft into a full fledged hotel suite that oozes luxury and modernity. The plane is put up at Teuge airport and is packed with all the requirements in a standard hotel suite. Three flat-screen televisions and a Blu-ray player have been installed to entertain guests. Those who prefer more relaxing holidays can chose to lay back in the sauna and Jacuzzi in the plane. Those who love flying or simply are curious enough can also visit the fully equipped cockpit (don’t try taking off though). If that’s not enough, the €350 nightly fee also includes the services of a round the clock hostess. Are you still skeptical about a holiday in a recycled aircraft?
A standard art gallery is a good gallery only when it satisfies the elements of space, sustainability and accessibility. But the School of Art has defied convention and has converted an old shipping container into a zero carbon mobile exhibition gallery. Powered by 130 watt solar panel, the designers replaced the old wooden toxic flooring with wood recovered from shipping pallets. They also installed skylights made from recycled frosted glass, placed at angles corresponding to the degrees of the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. This way they have very smartly used recycled materials and applied small scale sustainable methods to build up this green design!
Truly a collectors collectable, BRENDA, a robot made of vintage recycled metal can adorn your home beautifully. If you are an ardent lover of all things antique, this little girl is perfect for you. BRENDA measures 15″ tall and 9.5″ wide and is made of full recycled parts and also has new parts. She has a very vintage look and has clockwork and an antique key on her back.
We all love our pets but not the poop they leave behind. Well to make things easier every time our loving pet decides to answer nature’s call, Tohoku Kankyo, a Japanese based company has come up with an awesome way to dispose off the poop and also food leftovers with its composting baby, the Samu Dog Robot. Using heat and an additive, this robot swallows (sounds disgusting) up all the poop and leftovers and composts it. The poop your pet leaves behind can be harmful if disposed of wrongly using a non-heated compost bin, since it is full of harmful bacteria and parasites, ready to spread diseases. Now here’s the glitch, this awesome composting can that both, you and your pet will simply adore (taken that it is shaped like a dog) is available only in Japan and from specialty importers. Also, this environment friendly way of disposing off leftovers from your table and your pets poop will burn a $900 hole in your pocket.
[Trendhunter]
We all love cars that can go fast. And if their green and energy efficient, we’re bound to love them more. Well, a car made out of cardboard and paper sounds incredibly… light and weird, doesn’t it? Honda made sure they turned visitors heads right round at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2010 this time with their life size model of the Epson Nakajima Racing Honda NSX. So what’s so special about this car? It looks fast, and is sure to make you drool, and is made entirely out of recycled cardboard and paper! Now that renders the car un-drivable, and its obviously meant to be just a showpiece and a model, but this real life-like car is sure to win the hearts of Honda fans all over the globe who love the environment and support the use of recycled products like cardboard. And as a postscript, no trees were cut to make this supercar!
Designed by an innovative genius from Germany, Nika Rams, a range of products known as UseLess Products teach us how to save energy and depleting natural resources in a simple and practical way. Okay, the name may suggest that they have absolutely no use (if you haven’t figured it out yet, it actually means USE LESS), but then again, names are meant to be innovative, right? Well, these three products are just as innovative as their name. The UseLess Paper is a toilet paper role with guidelines that enable you to tear off just that part of the paper and not wasting too much of it on natures call. The UseLess Energy is simply a stopper that blocks your wall electric outlet and discourages you from using it too much. The UseLess Water concept is a tap with a lid that helps stop water dripping and flowing down the drain. This goes to show that saving energy isn’t really a difficult task and can be done in many practical ways, if only we care that much about our environment and the danger it faces.
Disposing weapons may be a tedious and a serious problem. However, the famed Scotland Yard has found a novel way of disposing of their unwanted weaponry; by recycling the guns and knives. 52 tonnes of scrap metal was obtained from keys, guns, knives and other objects. These metals were melted and used in the building of bridges, buildings, and also cars and trains.
