While nothing beats reusable dishware for your festive events, these biodegradable plates from VerTerra are a great alternative to yucky paper or plastic dishes. VerTerra (true to the Earth) plates are made from organically-grown palm tree leaves from India. The fallen leaves, which would traditionally have been burned on the roadside, are collected, sterilized, steamed and pressed into plates. The process uses no chemicals, glues or bonding agents, and over 80% of the water used during the steaming and pressing process is recaptured and recycled. Best of all, VerTerra’s plates are 100% natural and biodegradable!

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Award-winning Norwegian design house TRØKK16 will be exhibiting their latest designs at this year’s Milan International Furniture Fair , but before we unveil their latest works, we’d like to highlight a few of their outstanding past projects. The Loop LED Lamp puts traditional desk lamps to shame. This stylish desk light uses LEDs and needs only 5 watts to light up your work space and, perhaps, inspire your own eco-creations.

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The Nut Bench is fun, colorful and made from pineapple paper to boot! Bangkok-based Yothaka International creates hand-woven, modern Asian designs using local natural fibrous materials available in Thailand. The firm that pioneered the use of water hyacinth and Yan Lipao (a fern-like vine found in the South of Thailand) in furniture making has introduced a Pineapple Paper collection made from locally produced pineapple paper fiber. Pineapple leaf fibers are pressed, dyed and made into eco-friendly chairs, stools and benches.

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Here’s a breakfast that’s capable of not only fueling your body but also powering the entire factory that makes it. Scott’s Porage Oats, a Quaker Oats Factory at Uthrogle Mills in Scotland is installing a combined heat and power biomass boiler that will enable the factory to become carbon-neutral, running entirely on waste oat husks. The husks, removed from the oats during the milling process, will provide 9,709 MWhrs of electricity and 10,902 MWhrs of steam a year, reducing its emissions by 9,000 tonnes a year—equivalent to the annual emissions of 3,000 cars. Now none of the energy stored in the oats will go to waste.

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Furniture designer Cliff Spencer couldn’t resist when he heard about a Napa winery discarding wine-stained oak. An avid user of reclaimed materials, Spencer now regularly reclaims oak staves from California wineries and transforms them into these stunning one-of-a-kind pieces for residential and commercial use. (p.s., you don’t have to be a wine aficionado to enjoy them).

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A human-powered energy-generating gym like Hong Kong’s is now taking shape in Seattle, turning human sweat into usable electric energy. By connecting spinning bikes to wind-generator motors, clients at Adam Boesel’s green microgym can generate enough electricity to power the gym’s music system or run their own personal DVD player.

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We love designers who get their inspiration from the unexpected, and we love transforming, 2-for-1 furniture even more! Check out the Caterpillar, a flexible piece of furniture inspired by bicycle chains. Why settle for just one position, when Anna Bullus’s Caterpillar lounge chair can be maneuvered into at least 14 different positions. With such flexibility, its easy to find a position that fits your comfort.

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Here’s a sweet treat that may leave you a little sticky. Anna Bullus’s gives new meaning to term ‘biodegradeable’ with a vanishing cup made entirely of sugar. With ‘One Cup or Two’ not only is there no leftover plastic or paper cup headed for landfill, but there is also no need to add sugar to your tea or coffee — as you can just add your tea or coffee to the sugar cup and enjoy. One Cup or Two can be used up to four times and come in an assortment of flavors including plain, almond and Irish Whiskey. Hey Starbucks…. can you smell a fun eco idea brewing here?
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Solar Cynergy’s new line of solar LED lights is an eco-friendly, reliable and smart alternative to traditional street lights and home garden lights. Run entirely on solar energy, there’s no battery or complicated wiring involved, simply place the unit in a sunlit area and you can use the sun’s rays to light up anything from your front yard and drive way to dangerous intersections and crosswalks.

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Our streets our littered with used chewing gum, but next time your bubble loses its pop, don’t drop it—recycle it! Anna Bullus’s Bubble Gum Bin is made from Gumnetic, a new biodegradable material she developed made from sterilized used chewing gum and bio resin. The bin keeps chewing gum litter from our sidewalks and shoes and when full, the entire container is recycled to make even more bins. How’s that for cradle-to-cradle?

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Say goodbye to plastic cutlery and hello to SpudWare—cutlery made from 80% potato starch and 20% soy oil that’s just as heat resistant and every bit as strong as plastic cutlery. The kicker? It biodegrades in just 180 days! SpudWare can even be washed and reused, so you can eat your potatoes with potatoes for months to come.

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Last year we highlighted HansaCanyon bathroom fixtures, sleekly designed faucets whose “canyons” are lined with LEDs that change color according to the temperature of the water (blue=cold, pink=warm and red=hot). It’s a pretty neat functional feature, and a safety measure as well- the colors can help prevent you from scalding yourself while washing your hands or stepping into a really cold bath. And now, the German-made Hansa Canyon is available in the U.S.! Until now, despite the Hansa hype, many American buyers were left to settle for alternatives like Equa’s Light Delight or ThinkGeek’s budget LED faucet. But now, just check out the Hansa U.S. website’s Where To Buy” page for further details.

+ Hansa Canyon

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Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have invented a new method of magnetic cooling technology that brings a whole new meeting to refrigerator magnets. Scientists have been able to drop the temperature of a room from 20° C to 11° C by taking the heat energy from opposing magnetic fields and thermodynamically reversing it to a cooler temperature. DTU researchers will use this technology to create a prototype refrigerator that cools itself using only magnets. According to research from Risø National Laboratory, magnetic refrigerators would be silent and their cooling cycles could be up to 60% more efficient than traditional refrigerators!

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September 22nd marks the first annual “No Car Day” in China, a national campaign hoping to reduce exhaust emissions and ease traffic congestion by limiting the number of private vehicles on the roads. Over 100 cities in China will participate, leaving residents to travel by foot, bike or public transportation. In Shanghai, a third of the city’s vehicles will be ordered off the roads and private cars will be banned from driving through areas of downtown.

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Wondering what to do with all those old floppy disks, scratched CDs and random computer parts you can’t get yourself to throw away? Check out the clocks, notebooks and jewelry the clever folks at Acorn Studios have fashioned from old keyboard keys, circuit boards and floppy disks for a little inspiration. Acorn Studios transforms electronic waste into fun gifts perfect for computer geeks and eco-friendly consumers.

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