Category Archives: Recycle
Green is in. Recycling is in. And if you still aren’t up to the environment conscious trend, here’s something you should read up on. On an average, a single individual dumps at least seven and a half times their body weight of garbage every year. 10% plastics, 30% paper, 15% food, 15% garden waste, 10% metal, 5% wood, 8% glass, 5% rubber and 2% miscellaneous items make up this. And that’s just you. Take the waste that spews out of your entire household every week and it amounts to 3.3kg of combustible waste, 3.1kg of kitchen waste 3.8kg of cardboard waste and paper. And if you’re wondering what all this waste could actually create, the average dustbin every year could easily generate enough energy to power up 500 baths, 3500 showers and 5000 hours of television! And yes, speaking of televisions, 96% of them can be recycled into new ones.
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Paper recycling has given birth to quite a few products in the past and is continuing to do so, this time around, its wallpaper. The fine wallpaper on your wall could just be made out of the newspapers you sent for recycling last month! New York-based company Weitzner Limited has come up with the Newsworthy, upcycled newspaper wallcovering made from 100% recycled newsprint. Look closely and you might just spot some month-old headlines too! The technique involves the use of weaving 100% real newsprint strips by hand on a loom. The material is then paperbacked, making it ideal for your walls.
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Remember the good old Trojan Horse episode from historic literature? Well, here’s an elephant that could give it a run for its money, though this one isn’t being used as a war strategy to deceive enemies. This elephant uses recycled materials and was built in France, part of the Machines of the Isle of Nantes art and culture show. Measuring 12 meters high x 8 meters wide, this elephant is mechanical, and is sculpted out of 45 tons of reclaimed wood and steel, inspired by the mechanical elephant in the show, the Sultan’s Elephant. Lovingly and pretty simply christened the Giant Elephant, this one can take 49 passengers at a time, a feat no other elephant has probably tried doing, for a walk lasting a whole 45 minutes.
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Now we’ve heard of those shipping crates being turned into camping cabins, restaurants and homes, as a way to recycle the same, and give the homeless a roof over their heads. And just as we expected, shipping containers have now got a cooler and greener shade too! Who needs to stay out in the open or have a barbeque party in your backyard, when you could move this container around, open up its flaps, and have a full fledged place to enjoy a party outdoors! Known as the Boxman, probably owing to the fact that it remains a recycled box, this one requires only 20 minutes of setup, with a 500 square foot party venue powered by the sun. Amazing? Read on!
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We all have them in our garages, in the attic and up the loft. We’re talking about those every-helpful set of tools you keep at home, to help you out with your do-it-yourself exploits and minor repairs. Well, its time for our tools to go green too. Evolv, a tool brand from Sears has hooked on design firm Design Guys to come up with an eco-conscious package for their latest series of tools. The firm hopes to adopt packaging that shuns the use of PVC by doing away with the clamshell and blister pack style container. Instead, Evolv will use recycle-friendly corrugated cardboard to pack these set of tools.
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Planning on a picnic down to the riverside along with your friends or family anytime soon? Well, here’s something that could help you carry all those ingredients that help make your picnic a one to remember. The Boxsal is sure to leave a smile across your face and everyone else around you. It’s eco-friendly, cute and innovative. Remember those good old days when Dad carried a picnic hamper to fishing trips? Well, times have changed, and the picnic hamper has turned into a box, made out of recyclable cardboard that can also be used for compost. The Boxsal packs and includes fully compostable utensils, plates, cups, containers and napkins too, so you don’t need to rummage around your kitchen just before you leave, searching for all of these.
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Where do old Speedo LZR Racer briefs go after their wearers are done swimming in them? Well, some of them are recycled and turned into awesome piece-of-art like structures. Now who’d guess recycle briefs could be used so creatively? This stunning metal beam structure at the recent London Festival of Architecture was recently unveiled, designed and constructed by Chelsea College of Art & Design undergraduate students. A closer look at the structure reveals the swimming briefs stretched out between the crossbeams.
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We’ve seen a Honda NSX super-car cardboard before. Well, this time it’s just a set of two wheels in cardboard. Kenny Scott, an art student and motorbike fanatic, came up with this awesome replica of a full fledged Harley Davidson, made entirely out of recycled cardboard. No chrome and metallic parts here. It’s cardboard, through and through. Using recycled card, paper glue and a craft knife, Scott created this Harley, green enough to the Hells Angels in wide eyed wonder. The model won best in show at the University of Central Lancashire end-of-year exhibition too!
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Popping out drinks and food isn’t all vending machines do. We’ve come across reverse vending machines like the Envirobank before. Here’s yet another reverse vending machine that sucks in your trash and hands out cash. The Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) gladly accepts your recyclable bottles and cans, for cash in return. These have recently been placed at the Centro Hollywood shopping mall in Adelaide and are part of South Australia’s effort to promote recycling.
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We’ve seen quite a few eco-friendly and environment friendly stadiums like the Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi and the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban before. Here’s yet another one that takes the whole idea of involving green in sports to a whole new level. This soccer stadium in Vancouver, known as the Empire Field Stadium, has its field made partly of recycled tires, 22,450 of them in all. This soccer stadium uses 346,000 pounds of crumb rubber made from tires. This is the largest installation of crumb rubber in all of British Columbia, which has given 22,450 scrap tires a new life of sports. The rubber is used as an additive to the soil with an improved drainage and provides a level of cushioning to keep away nasty on-field injuries.
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