An average standard mouse can use dozens of alkaline batteries in a year. Let us introduce you a better option. This is Corky, a mouse which does not rely upon disposable batteries, it’s made from 100% recycled plastic components and recycled and biodegradable cork. And the best… it powers itself from its usage! Every movement, click and roll of the scroll wheel generates power to keep the mouse going.
The wireless mouse relies on piezoelectric elements to generate power, a technology that is available and has made an appearance in some watches. Thanks to an innovative design, which includes regional sourcing and assembly, product take-back and recycling and availability of disassembly data to recycling centers, Corky participated in the 2010 Greener Gadgets Design Competition. It didn’t win but a 5th place, out of 18, is not that bad.
Getting up every morning is a hard job. We all know that. But getting up without enjoying a nice cup of tea or coffee is a impossible mission for many of us. And since we need caffeine/theine to start the day with energy, we need kettles.
Kettles are one of the most used appliances in the kitchen. In the UK, a standard kettle is used between 4 and 7 seven times a day, that is to say, between 1,500 and 2,500 times per year. According to Energy Saving Trust, if every household in the country used a 20% more efficient energy kettle there would be a saving around £170 million of electricity a year. As well as this, if everyone boiled only the water they needed each time they used the kettle, the electricity saved in a year would be enough to power the UK’s street lights for nearly 7 months.
How can a standard kettle be more environmentally friendly? There are three simple ways:
1) Making it easier to view the level of water in the kettle: 1.27 billion kWh of electricity could be saved every year only in the UK doing that.
2) Keeping water hot for longer: having a well insulated kettle would mean less energy would be needed later on when you needed more hot water.
3) Fitting a temperature gauge: There wouldn’t be need to re-boil water if you knew that the water inside the kettle was still hot enough to make your drink.
Greenpeace has developed a ranking system applied to the world’s most important multinational electronics companies. They have designed a chart with values from 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest “green value” and 10 would be extremely green. Greenpeace developed this system in 2006 hoping that by such clear comparisons between rival companies to admire which one is the most eco-friendly one, it might promote in some way green designs for future products, or at least encourage them to take an interest in using less damaging materials and substances to fabricate them.
The ranking system is based on how hazardous to the environment the chemical substances that are being used by the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles might be, according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Commitment to ecological awareness awards companies with “green points” on the Greenpeace chart.
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Each year 58 billion paper cups are thrown away rather than recycled. This could also be counted as 20 million trees, 12 billion gallons of water and energy to power 53,000 million homes used to make these cups. All together, a lot of waste just to grab a daily cup of coffee.
In May 2009 Starbucks decided to tackle this problem, they sponsored a design contest, the Betacup Challenge, to find a creative solution to solve this huge paper-cup waste. Shaun Abrahamson, of the social production consultancy that organized the challenge, Colaboratorie Mutopo, explained that the ideal solution would be one that could be implemented right away, and start making a difference from day one.
The winner to this contest was declared recently, chosen by a jury made up of designers, engineers and entrepreneurs, out of a pool of 430 other designs. The acclaimed design is surprisingly simple: Chalkboard. Customers who bring in a reusable mug can put a mark on this board, and every tenth guest gets a free beverage. The name of this whole concept is Karma Cup. “There are plenty of great reusable mugs out there,” the entry says. “But what people really need is an incentive to make the behavior change — a free cup of coffee and a bit of peer pressure.”
Starbuck’s ultimate goal is to serve 100% of their beverages in reusable or recyclable cups by 2015. But the company hasn’t yet announced that they will be implementing the contest winning chalkboard or any of the other designs that took part in the competition. Abrahamson states “Even if Starbucks isn’t interested in incorporating any of the proposed ideas my team is determined to find people and companies who are. Obviously we’re hoping that [interest] comes from Starbucks”.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend to be applied by many coffee stores and companies, but most importantly, by people. Consumers are needed to be willing to join in and make the change to sustainable coffee cups instead of disposable ones. A lot of trash could be saved from piling up in landfills, and resources used to make the disposable cups would be used in significantly smaller numbers. A simple concept as the Karma Cup might be the answer to this problem.
via: Mashable
Jack Johnson is a world famous musician, that unlike many others has a passion for environmentalism. He keeps it green not only in his daily life, but he also makes sure all of his concerts are as green as possible.
The Kokua Festival in Hawaii, organized by Johnson himself, features Johnson and his band as the headline act, attracts 20,000 concert-goers over two nights. The environmental message is everywhere, even before fans make it through the gates. Posters and signs encouraging bike-riding, using renewable energy and overall protecting and respecting the environment are to be found wherever you look. There is even a bicycle valet-parking enclosure outside the Waikiki Shell, an outdoor auditorium on the outskirts of Honolulu where the festival takes place.
Kokua means help, as soon as you arrive at the auditorium gates you find more posters which set the “greening principles” for the event. Plastic water bottles are banned, sustainable biodiesel and biodegradable food utensils are used, the whole festival aims for zero waste. The money raised goes to a range of island-wide non-profit organizations, the Kokua Foundation’s stall is situated alongside representatives from the Hawaii Farmers’ Union, the Surfrider Foundation and the Liquid Aloha Brewery (‘coming soon: sun-powered beer’). Johnson’s non-profit foundation supports environmental education in schools and communities in the islands.
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We all order takeout every once in a while, or go out for dinner and ask to take our leftovers with us in a "doggy bag". But what happens with all that packaging after it has been used? Some might take the trouble to recycle it, but most likely it will go in the trash and end up in some pile of waste somewhere.
American designer Justin Kakobson came up with an amazing idea to stop feeding landfills with our takeout packagings: he has managed to transform the discarded material into lightweight portable speakers. The speakers do not only contribute in keeping our planet clean, they are also incredibly functional and look amazing!
This ingenious designer did not stop at the paper takeout box speakers, he has also designed a bamboo camera and a milk bottle USB.
Via: EcoFriend
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Coca-Cola has teamed up with design firm Emeco to create a new fate for the millions of plastic coke bottles that are normally thrown away. The construction of the new “111 Navy Chair” will use at least 111 former coke bottles, or 60% PET plastic (recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic), along with pigment and glass fiber for strength. The classic design of the chair was originally created for the U.S. Navy in 1944. The 111 Navy Chair will be available for purchase next month.
Gregg Buchbinder, the Chairman of Emeco explains:
When Coke came to me with this project I jumped on it. It’s a huge investment for a small company, but we have the potential of reusing the PET from about 3 million plastic bottles a year. That’s a lot of bottles and a lot of chairs too. The new chair is the strongest, and most beautiful we can make. We’ve turned something you throw away into something you want and can keep for a long, long time.
The main strategy used by Zurich’s government is making the use of one official garbage bag mandatory. The “Zuri-pack” needs to be purchased by everyone to dispose of their trash. The idea is to discourage waste generation by setting a high price on the zuri-pack.
Between 1992 and 2005, waste was reduced from 140,000 tons a year to 100,000.
Further, waste collection days have been gradually reduced. Currently, waste is picked up just once a week. In order to ensure people’s compliance with waste disposal rules, fines are charged to those who either don’t use the zuri-pack or leave their waste on the street the wrong days.
Also, the fact that waste is collected less often forces people to having to coexist with their trash more time. So, if they want to avoid being covered by their trash, they had better think before “throwing” their stuff away.
In average, the Zurich family produces one zuri-pack a week.
Another positive consequence this program has is that consumers start trying to buy products with less packaging. If you know that you’re going to have to pay for every extra piece of garbage, you start measuring your generation of waste much more seriously.
Regarding food waste, there are community compost bins, where people can take their organic waste. Additionally, compost is generated, for the benefit of everyone.
VIA: Sustainable Cities / NY Times
Trash, a real bummer. Many say our whole production system is incorrectly designed, that’s why so much materials and energy are wasted. The best solution would be to change this system and make everything reusable, and recyclable. In the meantime, every effort to try to reduce waste, and recycle is important.
To enhance recycling, a number of features need to be taken into account. First, people need to be aware of the importance of recycling; they also have to learn how to dispose of their trash correctly. Further, without a market or an industry which processes materials, not much is possible. And a crucial factor is that people need to have information on where they can dispose of their trash. Today, I want to look at RecyclingNearYou, an Australian initiative that offers lots of useful information online.
On their webpage, you can insert the product you want to recycle, or the area you live in, and find out the recycling and waste services offered by your council. If the online data does not do, you can always call the RecyclingNearYou hotline on 1300 733 712.
This project was launched in 2006 by Planet Ark. So far, the site has received more than 2.5 million visits. A report published last year shows that the N 1 concern of the site’s visitors is electronic waste. Apparently, Australians are becoming increasingly aware of how much this sort of material can contaminate, and how important their correct disposal is.
This is, without a doubt, a project to learn from and to test in as many cities and regions as possible.
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about jeans being recycled into insulating material.
Apparently, it works very well, and it uses an already existent material, that could otherwise become trash. Like for example, your old jeans. This week, until March 14, you can take your old jeans to any Gap store in the US. They will be used to create insulating material, and you will get 30% off new purchases.
Gap has teamed up with Cotton Inc, establishing this “denim drive” to collect as much jeans as possible. The resulting insulating material is then donated to places in need.
The program started in 2006, and it is called “Cotton, from blue to green”. Since then more than 270,000 pieces of denim have been collected, which were then used for insulation in 540 houses. Most of these houses were located in areas which had suffered from natural disasters, like New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina.
By recycling jeans, 200 tons of denim are kept from being sent to landfills each month.
Some benefits of this cotton insulating material include the absence of VOC (volatile organic compounds), it absorbs sound very well reducing noise, it prevents mold and mildew, and it has no irritating components.
Cotton Inc has been helped by National Geographic Kids magazine, which in 2009 set a Guinness record for “Most Items of Clothing Collected for Recycling”, collecting 33,088 pieces of denim. All of these were donated to the Cotton from blue to green denim drive.
Being jeans such a popular garment, this initiative is great. If I try to remember how many pair of jeans I’ve bought during my life, I have no clue, but undoubtedly more than 15. All those jeans required resources and energy for being manufactured. They also have characteristics that make them useful. So why just dump them? By transforming jeans into an insulation material, we avoid landfilling, and we generate a sustainable material that will help insulate houses, which in turn helps reduce energy usage.
VIA: Treehugger
Education and the mass media are two of the possible tools for trying to talk people into recycling. However, they are often not enough. That’s when legislation comes in, forcing people to act in more sustainable ways. This is the case of the North Carolina House Bill 1465, which forbids sending plastic bottles and aluminum cans to landfills, among others.
It may be discouraging to think that only a law can change human behavior. We who work in organizations that try to foster more eco-friendly ways of living can be led to ask ourselves whether informing readers is worth it. I still think it is.
Laws are generally the result of human evolution. Though maybe an extreme example, slavery was legal until people’s minds started to change, and they began to see it as something immoral. That’s when a law that declared slavery illegal came around.
So, coming back to North Carolina and its banning of not recycling bottles and cans, I think this is the result of a generalized progress in our conception of waste. A few years ago, bottles were just dumped without anyone worrying about it. After years of this risky carelessness, we are coming to realize that a change is needed.
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We have already looked at Cambridge and its green development plans. Now it’s the turn for Yale University. One of the most surprising and encouraging facts I’ve found doing some research is that Yale has developed a new building which has recently been awarded the highest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certificate. It also has an organic farming project on campus, and has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
The building I just mentioned is the Kroon Hall, home of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. It consumes 81% less water and 58% less energy than other similar buildings.
The Kroon Hall also uses renewable energy; it has solar panels on its roofs that provide it with 25% of its electricity needs. Solar power is also being used for heating around 50% of water, with solar water heaters.
As regards recycling, the Kroon has a system to reuse water. Storm water is collected, as well as grey waters. These are filtrated using native aquatic plants. Grey waters and storm water are used for flushing toilets and for irrigation. On the other hand, plumbing includes low-flow mechanisms, and so do irrigation fixtures, which greatly lowers the demand for water.
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