Category Archives: Recycle
We all know how long it took the Christians to build those mighty Cathedrals in the good old days. These took large amounts of money, materials and labor, owing to which they still stand strong today. One man set out to build a Cathedral of his own, using salvaged materials. This one has taken 50 years to be what it is today, spotted in Madrid. Built by Justo Martinez single handedly, the Cathedral is a great example of recycling and reuse, coupled with great designing and practicality. Martinez, a former monk who was required to leave the order due to an illness, has built the cathedral 131 feet high, and is still building, salvaging windows and the roof.
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Trees are cut. Wood is processed. Chopsticks are made. That’s a fact. What you probably might not have heard of before is, trees being made out of chopsticks! We were pretty astounded when we first came across this one too. A closer look showed an innovative way to recycle used chopsticks. With help from Greenpeace and Ogvily’s campaign to help people realize the dangers of deforestation, a good 200 volunteers from various Beijing universities came forward and helped dig out some 80,000 wooden chopsticks. These were then cleaned and with the help of artist Xu Yinhai, four life-like trees were constructed. China produces some 57 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks, for which 1.18 million square meters of forests are cut down.
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The Christmas season’s over the Christmas tree needs disposing. So, you’ll probably drive around to your garbage dump and toss it there, right? Wrong! You could recycle it instead and come up with something innovative! To inspire you, here’s a sledge created out of a recycled Christmas tree. Tom Hatfield sure thought better than dumping his tree this year, and the student of Royal College of Art came up with this fully functional sledge. He picked up bits and pieces of other trees around London too and using a traditional woodworking technique know as bodging, without drying the wood, he built this one.
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One thing’s for sure. A Triumph motorcycle can be pulled away to pieces and a load of everyday items can be created out of its parts. Well, at least that’s what we’ve learned from the home prototypes created by a bunch of young industrial designers who teamed up with Triumph Motorcycles in collaboration with Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Using motorcycle parts, designer Richard Underhill came up with the Turntable. Wa Ya-Lin, yet another designer came up with the “Bowl” while using a bike handle, Nick Orme designed the Corkscrew. Using a motorcycle brake and clutch levers, designer I-Chen Yang designed a fork, a spoon and a knife and the Coffee Table by Zhan Cheng uses a motorcycle’s front wheel and tire.
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Retiring from its services wasn’t of too much interest for this engine, as it’s back on track, literally. After having spent its life hauling cargo and passengers, this engine, which should really be sitting in a museum, is now a full-fledged vacuum cleaner! Amazing right? We though so too! Rail engineers got to work on this one, and added a huge suction pipe that makes it resemble an elephant! Cleaning railway tracks isn’t too much of a task now, thanks to this lovely engine sucking up trash through its nose-trunk-suction pipe. And yes, it is indeed a great way to have the old engine recycled, instead of scrapping it and having it end up in a railway dump.
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In a recent crackdown by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the Four Loko alcoholic beverage was pulled of store shelves and discontinued owing to caffeine contents. So, wholesalers from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and other East Coast states have begun sending all these now discontinued drinks to MXI Environmental Services in Virginia for recycling, and having them used to create ethanol. These drinks were usually purchased by college students and have resulted in a number of alcohol-related deaths and accidents in the past too. So, the killer drink will now be used for a greener cause. MXI will have the alcohol distilled from the drinks, which will then be sold and blended into gasoline. The aluminum cans are also to end up at recyclers for a new life.
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Artists are known to have a tremendously creative imagination that they bring out in the form of their art, be it music, sculpting, painting and just about any other form of art. Florida-based artist Derek Gores decided to skip the paint palettes and brushes, and chose to create his pictures using something out-of-the box and completely extra-ordinary, recycled materials. He sure has done the environment a huge favor by using the materials to create something beautiful, instead of having them rot away in landfills. Gores made use of recycled magazines, labels and other materials and has come up with some seriously eye-catching portraits of people. And no, these paintings don’t let out hints of having recycled materials as building blocks, instead giving out colorfully vibrant appearances.
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And just when we thought we’d had a perfect day, a car drove past, and drew a line across our clothes. But we couldn’t help but smile at it. And that’s because this Mercedes Benz, has an astounding amount of recycled pens stuck on to it. Maybe not the best way to recycle pens, taken that they just won’t write anymore, this one sure is amusing and innovative though. It took a whole five years for Costas Schuler to cover up his beloved Benz with more than 10,000 pens from all around the world. The 1981 300SD Mercedes Benz has pens glued all over, inside and outside, smartly leaving out the windshield, by the designer, a resident of Forestville, California.
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It’s been nearly a year now since a massive earthquake shook the life out of Haiti and the debris are slowly being cleared away with the horrific memories of the natural calamity. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred has left behind debris that according to experts at Georgia Tech can be recycled and reused safely. This can be done inexpensively and be reused as strong construction material in the future. Currently, authorities are busy looking up ways to systematically and safely dispose of the waste and debris covering an estimated to be 20 million cubic yards. Sample of the typical concrete rubble are being collected and using some fairly simple methods of recycling the rubble and debris, new concrete will be created.
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Recycling your garbage will now be a lot easier and a task performable at home, thanks to this development by Singaporean polytechnic students. A bunch of students have developed a home-based recycling bin that was awarded the Special Merit Award from the Green Wave Environmental Care Competition for its design. Currently waiting to be adopted by a manufacturer, this recycling bin will not cost more than $20 and is sure to end up in most households in future. Unlike other bulky public recycling bins, this one’s small and compact and isn’t too much of a space hog. The 106 liter bin was developed in accordance to a survey conducted in 100 households; where in majority of the people stated that they certainly would recycle, if a gadget like this was available.
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