The retailing sector in UK is going greener by the day, this time making sure that the amount of waste sent to the landfill is reduced by less than a quarter! Twenty-two retailers in the United Kingdom have joined hands and signed above the dotted line for the Better Retailing Climate program. The initiative was launched in 2008 by the British Retail Consortium. A while back, about five years to be precise, these retailers would have about 48% filled up in their garbage bins being sent to the landfill. Now, the same retailers are sending as low as 23% of their waste to landfill sites. The initiative has also had the firms change their transportation techniques to reduce emissions, by changing routes, using energy efficient vehicles instead and space sharing in trucks!
Why use wood, or metals and plastics to build information desks when you could use a stack of information, piled up on pages to do the needful! This library information desk that we stumbled across uses a load of reused books, all stacked up neatly to build a sturdy piece of furniture. And besides just being a great way to rid of old books productively, this information desk looks just as great too! Depending on their size and shape, the books were carefully and creatively put together to build this one.
All right, the future we’ve all been afraid of is here. No, robots aren’t taking over the world. Dustbins are. Intelligent dustbins being developed will just tell on you if you ignore recycling. Cleveland might just have these bins sooner than you think, using RFID-chips. The bins detect use over a period of time and are smart enough to know when you don’t use them. Keep your bin at home for too long without giving away the waste, and city workers will go through your trash. If 10% recyclable materials are found, they’ll just burn a $100 hole in your pocket!
The White House has a new piece of art adorning its floors. This rug, made out of recycled materials, has found a home in President Barack Obama’s Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. Made in Michigan in the United States itself, the rug was put into place when the Obama family went vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts recently. Made from sustainable materials, including repurposed wool, this oval-shaped wheat, cream and blue carpet was sewn into piece by Scott Group Custom Carpets. Measuring 23-foot by 30-foot, the new rug at the white house looks strikingly beautiful. With 30 employees working on it, this detailed rug took around 570 hours to complete and includes quotations selected by President Obama from former presidents and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and 48 different colors. 100% natural wool was used for this one, brought all the way from New England and New Zealand.
Remember the 32 foot robot that we came across all the way from China, made out of a recycled truck? Or may the 10-foot tall Gundam robot, again, made out of recycled stuff? Well, these robots made from scrap now have a few more jumping on their bandwagon. And that’s not all, you can, for once, own one of these too! Three robots, made from recycled materials, showed up on Robo Steel’s website for sale, two 60-cm Optimus Primes and 2.5-meter version. The statues are made from junkyard stuff like spark plugs, car brake pedals, etc. The bigger version costs €5,500 ($7,000) and weighs around 550 kg, made from cars, boats, motorbikes, and dishwasher parts. Also, a 400 kg, 2.2-meter tall version of Bumblebee costing €5,000 ($6,400) was put up for sale.
Now everyone’s building robots from cartoon shows using recycled stuff. The last time we heard of one, it happened to be a 32-foot Transformer made from a scrapped truck who probably might busy be fighting of the Decepticons by now. This time around, it’s not all that tall, though absolutely unique and creative, a 10-foot tall Gundam robot made from runners. If you haven’t heard of runners before, these are those pieces of plastic that hold all the parts of your little Gundam together before you build them. This RX-78-2 Gundam isn’t full scale and certainly won’t walk around, though the effort and thought put into it is indeed impressive. The maker probably didn’t want to see his Gundam packaging go waste, so he just collected it all and came up with this marvelous piece. Taking around 250 man-hours of work, this recycled Gundam sure brings a smile on our faces!
Ever wondered where all that waste food from your airplane and the airport lands up? Mostly landfills, though waste food from the Heathrow airport will now serve a much better purpose. Waste like coffee grinds, potato peelings, egg shells and chicken bones that usually are thrown away from kitchens that prepare and serve food to around 180,000 passengers at Heathrow everyday, collected from all the cafés and restaurants out there. All this will then be bundled up and sent to a recycling factory of Vertal in Mitcham, South London. After a 72 hour grueling process, all this waste is converted into a nutrient-rich fertilizer that will then be used on local farms.
At first sight, you’d probably think this one came straight out of a Middle Eastern palace belonging to some century old Emperor. Think again. It barely ever found its place in a palace before. Instead, these marquetry boxes were made from old circuit boards. Designer Theo Kamecke based in New York came up with some of these jaw dropping beautiful pieces of art that under normal circumstances would usually be made using contrasting strips of fine wood veneer for the design. Instead of using wood, Theo used the circuit board’s metal to create patterns. Symmetrically designed, these boxes are a much better way to recycle circuit boards, preventing them from meeting their doom in landfills.
The clothes we wear today and pull of racks while shopping will be very unlike the ones we have in future. Future clothing will be as green as ever and recyclable too! Take Cintas’ new recyclable uniforms. These are made out of recycled plastic bottles and eco-charcoal, derivatives of coconut shells and nano-bamboo particles. The clothes once used, can be sent back for recycling. Known as the Eco Polo, these unisex shirts are certified to bluesign standards and half its recycled polyester is made from the plastic bottles while the other half from eco-charcoal. The shirts dry quickly, need no ironing, are mildew-proof and can bare heat too.
While passing by the old junk yard, what do you really see when you look at the used and worn out tires? You think junk, but the brilliant minds think other wise. Like those Vancouver saw a soccer field, Minarc see a sink top instead. And not only they make this vision into a usable reality, but they also managed to pick up an R+D Award for it from Architect Magazine. Called as RUBBiSH, this sink is created from recycled rubber tires.
