The Bottle Bank Arcade is a recycling bin that encourages a higher rate of returns by rewarding bottle recyclers with musical notes and tons of fun. It’s one of several kooky and kinetic entries in The Fun Theory competition, which will award £2500 ($4185) for the best idea that proves “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior … be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different.” Registration is currently open and the Contest closes Dec. 15, so enter your project today!
Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day. Now some of them will be just a little bit greener now that Coke has announced the global rollout of its PlantBottle, a plastic bottle made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and 30% plant based materials (derived from sugar cane and molasses). The new bottles stand to cut down on carbon emissions by up to 25% compared to traditional PET bottles.
Industrial design lab GR recently launched a clever new product called the ‘Aqua Jar’ that transforms any plastic bottle into an easy-pour pitcher. Formed from biodegradable and recyclable plastic, the attachment perfectly fits the universal coil of any plastic bottle, creating an attractive and sturdy mount allowing for water to be served anywhere with ease. Available in orange, graphite and frost, the Aqua Jar for Balvi was launched as part of the ZOCO exhibit at last month’s Valencia Design Week. Now if only they could come up with something for the orange juice carton!
One of the main principles of permaculture is that “the problem is the solution.” Problem: tons of waste cups created by attendees of the OutsideLands concert in San Francisco. Solution: a fabulous recycled cup canopy. BIOS Design Collective tapped a keg and invited their friends over for a canopy party, building a gorgeous wave of concave color at Stable Cafe just in time for Architecture and the City.
Low-Energy Laser Etching Could Replace Annoying Fruit Labels
How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you’re also chomping on a sticker label? The small yet wasteful labels have long been the bane of waste-conscious fruit and vegetable eaters, but that might all change thanks to new technology that uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to etch information directly onto produce. No more peeling those annoying labels!
Europe Approves Universal Cell Phone Charger
If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve got a pile of chargers left over from retired cell phones. You can’t use them with your new phone, but finding an innovative way of recycling the tangled up mass of wires can be difficult — quite the ecophile’s conundrum. Luckily, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to revolutionize the cell phone industry. The UN group recently unveiled its Universal Charging Solution, a charger that can be used in all future cell phone makes and models — as long as cell phone companies comply.
Sweden is Burning Biofuel Made from Bunnies
Scientific American recently reported that Sweden uses a pretty strange source for some of its heating fuel: rabbits. Stockholm has an overabundance of the cotton-tailed critters, and the hungry bunnies are decimating city parks. To cut back on bunny populations and create a greener source of heating fuel for Swedes, city employees round up the rabbits, shoot them, freeze them and then ship them to a heating plant where they’re incinerated. And yes, the thought of it makes our soul hurt, too.
Gigantic Coal Gasometers Transformed into Thriving Communities
In 1896 the Viennese authorities decided to invest in large-scale gas and electric utilities, so they constructed what became Europe’s largest gas plant. After nearly a century long run the plant was decommissioned, and left behind were four massive gasometers. These incredible structures were cast off, but a recent revitalization project led by Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Manfred Wehdorn, and Wilhelm Holzbauer have transformed these four tanks into spectacular and thriving communities.
E.Coli Cleans Up Nuclear Waste Cheaply, Efficiently
E. Coli does more than just make people sick — it can also be used to clean up nuclear waste, according to researchers at Birmingham University. The research team found that E. Coli bacteria effectively breaks down phytic acid (a phosphate storage material found in seeds) and releases the phosphate molecules, which bind to uranium to create a uranium phosphate precipitate. The precipitate can be harvested to recover uranium, and voila – no more nuclear waste.
Plastic Concrete: Building Bricks Made From Landfill Waste
Recent RPI Masters of Architecture graduate Henry Miller has devised a way to reuse waste plastic as an aggregate in cement, circumventing the energy-intensive process of plastic recycling. By grinding up landfill-bound plastic and mixing it with portland cement, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as traditional concrete made with mined aggregate. The ingenious solution netted miller first place in the “Component Category” of the second annual Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch is Worse Than We Thought
It’s a rumor that we hoped would never be confirmed: at least 1,700 miles of plastic trash is floating in what is commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Up until this point, scientists only had a vague idea of the scope of the trash they would find in the North Pacific Gyre, a vortex where four ocean currents meet. Isolated patches have been reported by sailors and fishermen, but now researchers, sailors, journalists, and government officials on a nearly four-week journey through the gyre say that plastic shards and netting abound in a space bigger than the state of Texas.
The Brooks Ave House: A Californian Study in Green
Vancouver-based architecture firm Bricault Design’s vegetation-clad house in Venice, California is a sexy study in green. The mod abode incorporates sustainable design in a new residential addition that features a lush living wall on three sides of the house and a breezy roof garden perfect for relaxing in the sun. Read on to see the other eco-conscious touches that make other homes green with envy.
Flow Kitchen Minimizes Waste, Maximizes Sustainability
Oregon-based Studio Gorm has created a complete kitchen in which energy is conserved and cooking waste is recycled and used to grow plants. Dubbed the flow kitchen, the design successfully integrates nature and technology into a system where drying dishes helps water plants and composting food waste helps to fertilize them.
McMansion Wetlands: Transforming Foreclosures Into Natural Water Filters
As the housing crisis wreaks havoc and suburbia suffers a critical blow from the credit crunch, what will become of all those foreclosed McMansions? Designer Calvin Chiu has proposed one solution that seeks to reinvent these monuments to excess as micro-wetland ecosystems that filter and provide fresh water to urban centers. One the more interesting top 20 finalists in our Reburbia Competition to redesign the suburbs, Frog’s Dream takes an inspired approach towards preserving the wetlands, solving the water crisis, and ensuring the sustainability of our cities in one fell swoop.
GREEN RANT: Stop Sending me Phone Books!
Inspiration for this rant landed on doorsteps in my area a few weeks ago, and has been sitting there, becoming increasingly soggy and unsightly ever since. Digging around the internet I found that many other people are also upset about the massive yellow and white phone books forced upon them. Some areas even have four or five phone directory companies distributing books to each residence! Maybe the contract companies hired to drop off the books do not have the resources to consider individual addresses in metropolitan areas like Philadelphia, where I reside, but the litter created globally by the mass amounts of unwanted phone books seems inexcusable. Wanting to know who I could point a finger at, I set out to find the root cause of the issue.
2009 Prix Pictet Environmental Photography Shortlist Announced
Although its name implies tongue twisters or dancing dwarfs, Prix Pictet is a distinguished international photography award for artists focused on environmental sustainability and has just announced their shortlist. Last year’s winner, Benoit Aquin, documented the effects and creation of deserts in China. This year’s 12 nominees depict the destruction of the environment through the exploitation of the world’s resources. Click through the gallery to see images from all the nominees!
Grandma Made Village Out of Tens of Thousands of Bottles
Grandmas make some pretty awesome things – pies, sweaters, and techinically, you. But can you say that your grandma ever made a village??? Ours certainly didn’t. Between 1956 and 1981 Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey built Bottle Village using tens of thousands of bottles in mortar. The village is “an otherworld of shrines, wishing wells, walkways, random constructions, plus 15 life size structures all made from found objects.” The 1/3 acre lot in Simi Valley, CA is literally littered with the various structures that Ms. Prisbrey created as a hobby, constructive creative outlet and playful reminder of the joy of upcycling. Unfortunately, a 1994 earthquake has left the village damaged and in need of repair, but recent media attention has helped bring in new visitors and a renewed interest in preserving this wonderful and unique place.
Bernie Madoff Serves Sentence at U.S.’s Only LEED-Certified Prison
You might not be the biggest fan of swindler Bernie Madoff, but at least he is supporting the green building movement by serving out his prison sentence in the U.S.’s only LEED-certified correctional facility. Not that he has a choice. In fact, word on the street is that Madoff didn’t actually want to go all the way to Butner, North Carolina where the green jail is located, requesting a stay at Otisville which is only 70 miles away from his hometown in Queens instead. While we don’t have much sympathy for him, we are pretty interested in what his daily life will be like.
Track Your Trash: Want to Know Where Your Starbucks Cup Ends Up?
Would seeing exactly where our trash goes change our consumer habits? That’s what a team of MIT researchers set to find out with Project Trash Track. The innovative system uses special electronic tags to track different types of waste in New York and Seattle as it journeys to its final resting place. The ultimate goal of the project will be to monitor the cost and patterns of urban disposal while creating awareness about the impact of trash on the environment.
Real-Life Wall-E Recycling Robot Takes to the Streets of Italy
It may not be as tiny or nimble as Wall-E, but this real-life DustCart robot traversing the streets of Peccioli, Italy is just as cute. The robot, part of the $3.9 million DustBot research program, collects trash and measures atmospheric pollutants like sulfur oxide, benzene, ozone, and nitrogen oxide with its on-board sensors. The robot can even be summoned with a cell phone and can go door to door, identify residents with a personal ID number, and sort their trash into organic, recyclable, or waste!
Australian Town Bans Bottled Water
The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?
Green Your Fourth of July: Last Minute Party Solutions
Happy Fourth of July! We know that you must already be celebrating in green style — with biodegradable plates, composting bins and maybe even some eco-friendly fireworks. But if you are having an itch that you still could do something to green your holiday weekend, here are a few super simple and practically free ways to make your BBQ, beach bash or rooftop gathering more about celebrating and less about waste. Uncle Sam would be proud!
5 Cheap and Easy Last Minute Ways to Green Your Fourth of July
Maybe you simply didn’t have enough time this year to think about it. Or maybe you’ve already gotten so many biodegradable plates, composting bins and other eco-hookups for your Fourth of July shindig that you feel you can’t possibly get any greener. Wait! Here are a few super simple and practically free ways to make your BBQ, beach bash or rooftop gathering more about celebrating and less about waste. Uncle Sam would be proud!
Sizzling Summer Shop Picks for Eco-Friendly Celebrating
BBQs, frosty drinks, swimming pools and bikinis – these are what summer dreams are made of. With all of the excitement, planning a summer that is both unforgettable and eco-conscious can seem daunting, but Independence Day (that’s next week!) is the perfect time to celebrate and commemorate all of the progress towards a less wasteful life you’ve made so far. Here are a few easy ways to make your summer sustainably stylish – right in time for the Fourth!
Scrap Lab: Furniture Made of Industrial Scraps
Scrap Lab is a group of designers based out of Bangkok’s Kasetsart University’s Architecture program that creates fun and innovative furniture out discarded industrial scraps. The group makes an eclectic variety of furniture, from a funky shaggy lamp to a lounge chair with a quilt-block pattern — all masterfully re-purposing materials that were once considered waste. While their list of materials includes traditional materials such as wood and metal, it also includes less traditional items such as foam and rope. The purpose of the group’s work is to not only create physical products, but also to collect research on how discarded materials can be used effectively to design functional and aesthetically pleasing pieces.
LOOWATT: Toilet Made From Poo Transforms Excrement into Energy
Design gets very literal in this toilet made from poop!
Form follows function to whole new level in Virginia Gardiner’s energy generating toilet – which is literally made from poop! Designed for use in developing countries, the LooWatt is a waterless toilet system that transforms human waste into a highly valued commodity – energy. The low-cost mechanical eco commode encourages people to trade in their waste for biofuel, creating an urban infrastructure that encourages proper waste disposal, cuts down on the spread of water-born illnesses, and provides a reliable source of energy (so long as you’re regular). Check out Dwell’s fantastic video (below) for an interview with designer Virginia Gardiner, and read on for more on the poop toilet!
Aveda is Saving Oceans & Marine Life One Plastic Cap at a Time
Wondering how to turn all of those plastic bottle caps running rampant in your household into a green, planet saving endeavor? Well, lucky for you, and for marine life everywhere, Aveda has come up with an alternative solution for all of the un-recyclable rigid plastic caps that invade your medicine cabinets, refrigerators and kitchen drawers. The very same ubiquitous bottle-toppers pose a dangerous threat to oceans, birds and marine life when they are improperly disposed of and wind up in landfills or sent down storm drains. Aveda’s Caps Recycling Program will re-purpose these toxic plastics as a base for new packaging, in an effort to eliminate them from our oceans before it’s too late.
Your Analog TV is Dead, Repurpose it into Something Fun!
Last week, millions of TV sets became obsolete, all due to the switch from analog to digital television. So, what does an eco-minded individual do with an old, ugly, lead and toxin filled box? Well, throwing it away is not an option! You could always recycle your old television — but that doesn’t quite do the trick, does it? What is a true green geek to do? Thanks to Make Magazine, we now have a few, very clever ideas for repurposing your defunct boob tube.
Philadelphia Rolls Out Solar-Powered Trash Compactors
People wandering the streets of Philadelphia may be surprised to see brand new solar-studded trash cans being installed on the sidewalks. These new landfill-crunching compacting bins are entirely powered by the sun and are able to accept close to eight times as much waste as a regular trash can. Pretty cool, we thought – especially once we found out that they are calling the new bins Big Bellys and that they stand to save the city close to 12 million dollars over 10 years!
Recycled Billboard Vinyl Becomes Public Art
Billboards get all sorts of (justified) flak for polluting our mind-scapes. They are everywhere, flaunting famous people — in expensive clothes, drinking sexy beer, promising us recession-busting discounts. Unfortunately, billboards are also responsible for a more tangible type of pollution. At the end of an advertising campaign, billboard workers roll up the heavy-grade vinyl and toss it in the dumpster. When Peter Schulberg experienced this waste firsthand, he immediately took steps to remedy it by inviting artists to use the discarded vinyl as a canvas for their work, which he would then display on the exterior walls of his gallery in Los Angeles.
Worm Factory Compact Composting Kits
The uneaten food and food preparation scraps we leave behind after ever meal weigh in as the single-largest component of the waste stream in the U.S. Want to do your part to reduce food waste but don’t know where to start? Washington-based Cascade Manufacturing Sales Inc. designed The Worm Factory, a composting kit complete with almost everything you need to reduce the amount of kitchen scraps, junk mail, and old newspapers you’re sending to the landfills. The Worm Factory promises odorless year-round operation, and with its compact footprint, it can even be used in apartments.
SPRING GREENING CONTEST: 1 Day Left!!
Calling all crafty Inhabitat readers!
Win $200 in our DIY Spring Greening Contest!
Our Spring Greening Contest is almost over, and there is just ONE DAY LEFT to enter our fabulous competition! To enter, simply send in your best example of refurbished, recycled, or reclaimed design. We’ll be featuring our favorite entries in an online voting competition next week, and the winner will receive all of the fortune and fame of being showcased on Inhabitat in addition to a $200 gift certificate to the Inhabitat Shop! So break out that dusty dresser or busted chair, give it a brand new life, slap on a fresh coat of (eco-friendly) paint, and let it shine for a chance to win!
The deadline for submissions is TOMORROW, March 27th at 11:59 pm EST
All you have to do to enter the contest is:
1. Sign up for the inhabitat newsletter
2. Send a photo and description of your project to editor at inhabitat.com
Chuck Waste Paper Basket Made of Waste Paper!
Studio Crank’s Chuck trash basket is a vessel for paper waste, made from paper waste. A waste-less waste paper basket, Chuck is constructed of 100% recycled cardboard, printed with low VOC based inks and is totally recyclable. The eco-ficient design is in perfect keeping with the desires of the environmentally savvy lifestyle that believes and lives the concept of ecological sustainability. What better way to walk the walk than to dispose of your trash in a can made from the same material?
SPRING GREENING CONTEST: 2 Days Left!!
Calling all crafty Inhabitat readers!
Win $200 in our DIY Spring Greening Contest!
Our Spring Greening Contest is running strong after a refreshing weekend of creative submissions, and there’s still time left to submit your DIY designs! To enter, simply clean out your closets and remake your dusty old furnishings, appliances, and household items into inspired examples of found design. We’ll be featuring our favorite entries in an online voting competition next week, and the winner will receive all of the fortune and fame of being showcased on Inhabitat in addition to a $200 gift certificate to the Inhabitat Shop! So break out that dusty dresser or busted chair, give it a brand new life, slap on a fresh coat of (eco-friendly) paint, and let it shine for a chance to win!
The deadline for submissions is this Friday March 27th at 11:59 pm EST
All you have to do to enter the contest is:
1. Sign up for the inhabitat newsletter
2. Send a photo and description of your project to editor at inhabitat.com
SPRING GREENING CONTEST: 4 Days Left to Enter!
Calling all crafty Inhabitat readers!
Win $200 in our DIY Spring Greening Contest!
Our Spring Greening Contest is running strong after a refreshing weekend of creative submissions, and there’s still time left to submit your DIY designs! To enter, simply clean out your closets and remake your dusty old furnishings, appliances, and household items into inspired examples of found design. We’ll be featuring our favorite entries in an online voting competition next week, and the winner will receive all of the fortune and fame of being showcased on Inhabitat in addition to a $200 gift certificate to the Inhabitat Shop! So break out that dusty dresser or busted chair, give it a brand new life, slap on a fresh coat of (eco-friendly) paint, and let it shine for a chance to win!
The deadline for submissions is this Friday March 27th at 11:59 pm EST
All you have to do to enter the contest is:
1. Sign up for the inhabitat newsletter
2. Send a photo and description of your project to editor at inhabitat.com
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
