We posted about the Radius company's
"Source" model toothbrush in 2007, when all-things corn were still the rage, saying: "The Source toothbrush helps to cut waste by using a reusable handle made of wood fiber, blended with a plastic derived from Nebraska maize. Into this you can put disposable heads, which cuts down on 4/5ths of waste when you replace it, compared to throwing away a traditional toothbrush." My how things have changed in just two years.
These days, it's all about who gets to handle the money. Amidst the global economic meltdown, Radius appropriately changed the design specs of its
Source model handles to be a composite of old US dollar bills and recycled plastic. The entire item is advertised as "BPA free," by the way....
Spittelau waste to energy plant provides district heating in Vienna. Image credit:
Wikipedia
In the past few years, there's been much talk about the variety of available and developing technologies that could help secure a more sustainable energy future. Since October is Energy Awareness Month, the discussion of these energy alternatives is even more pertinent. You've probably heard about these developments, such as wind and solar power, as they have dominated headlines in the news and broad-scale discussions about renewable energy. But one technology that is both sustainable and consistently available yet rarely mentioned as an alternative to fossil fuels is waste-based energy. ...
Photo via trssty
Check out Tonic's eco-highlights of the week! From innovation to entertainment, here's what's hot in the latest "
good news."
Cat Lincoln sat down with
Joe Berlinger, maker of the award-winning documentary
Crude, and learns why the story of big oil's exploits (and pollution) in Ecuador, but the award-winning documentary almost never made it to the big screen.
Continuing with exclusive Tonic interviews, Ben Corbett offers back-to-back conversations of inspiration with
No Impact Man Colin Beavan and the people's historian himself,
Howard Zinn, whose star-studded documentary hits the History Channel in December.
Want a new roof over your head and get off the grid at the same time? Katie Gustafson has a line on how to lighten your life with Dow Chemical's new
Powerhouse Solar Shingle.
Climbers in the Swiss Alps can thank architect Andrea Deplazers for
a stunning eco-hut rest stop for visitors that doubles as a research facility for Swiss Federal Institute for Technololgy (ETH) students. ...
Angelo, Temporary Services
Who knew that inspiration for remaking our things -- and perhaps by extension,
even our country -- could come from prisoners?
Then again, prison life comes with minimal resources, to say the least. To make the most of them, impromptu incarcerated inventors have long improvised with what little they have. (I'd like to see what Chinese prisoners
could do.) Fashioning your own tattoo gun with a battery or sculptures from candy wrappers (see above) sure beats making license plates (or
recycling computer parts for Dell). With a big nod to
Weburbanist and
Dornob, which first covered this a couple weeks back, here's a look at some inventions that give new meaning to the term self
made man....
Bamboo in bikes isn't a radically new concept (see below for our previous posts), but what is striking in this instance that a company would establish itself around a line of green bicycles crafted from bamboo and recycled aluminium alloy. With a swath of matching eco bike accessories to match.
Organic Bikes has been set up by
Wheel & Sprocket. As the largest bike retailer in the US state of Wisconsin, with over 35 years in the trade and recipient of the National Bicycle Retailer of the Year award, it would seem safe to assume this venture has been well thought through. It's great that such experience is being brought to bear on making our
most efficient means of transport even more environmentally benign.
And the bikes, what of them? Ah, sorry, read on. ...
Dow Chemical Company's POWERHOUSE™ solar shingles being installed. Image credit:
Jetson Green blog
Several companies offer building integrated solar-photovoltaic (BIPV) products; but, to be honest, most of them look contrived to me. These new Dow Powerhouse™ solar shingles seem much closer to the design heritage of traditional asphalt based roofing. Adequately matching the preceding aesthetic is key because it ensures the product will not off-put tradition-bound customers or conflict with homeowner association appearance standards.
Also, some of the early BIPV products strayed far from established construction contractor protocols, calling for new installation skills. Adding contractors means added time, greater cost, and increased risk of error. ...
One of Malmo's busiest streets will get a stretch of NOx-sucking sidewalk (via Wikimedia Commons).
Cement has not had an easy time trying to
profile itself as a green building material - it's energy intensive and has high carbon dioxide emissions, and cement kilns are a source of mercury emissions. But it has continued to try to do so. That's why the story of cement product concrete's abilities to both
suck nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from the air and be self-cleaning have been almost magic for the cement industry, or at least for
Italcementi, the company that has patented this process. Now after lots of pre-press, the additive is making its way into building panels as well as stretches of sidewalk....
In 2007 Hurricane Felix tore through Nicaragua, destroying thousands of acres of prime forest. Greg Marsh knew the area well; he had been working with the indigenous Miskitu people since 1999. He set up a business to harvest the red laurel and cocobolo knocked down by the hurricane and export it....
The water cooler with the big polycarbonate bottle is so outré, but is also expensive. But nobody likes water fountains any more and lots of people carry
SIGGs refillable bottles. This new "hydration station" from Haws detects the bottle without touching and delivers filtered water. They say that "every bottle refilled saves the equivalent of a quarter bottle of crude oil that would have been used in the manufacture and shipping of bottled water.
They also point out that it "lowers risk, both in not having unknown persons delivering 5 gallon bottles into your facility" and not having employees kill themselves trying to change them. Or, as where I teach and where they should know better, the closets are filled with empty bottles waiting to be picked up.
Very clever, from
Haws via the
Dobbin Sales booth at the
Green Building Festival....
Giant Trevalley fish off Australian coast, expressing the full horror of being geoengineered by a bit of rust in the dust. Image credit
:wikipedia
News filtering out of Australia indicates a massive geoengineering of the Southern Oceans, done without the necessary government approvals, and with no regard whatsoever to potentially adverse 'ecosystem impacts.' Iron oxide laden dust, originating from the Lake Eyre Basin area of central Australia, reportedly has blanketed the ocean surface from the Australian coast to New Zealand. The iron-fertilizer-in-the-ocean "dump" came on so suddenly, even Greenpeace was caught off guard. (Otherwise, there surely would have been banners of protest.) At least we can rest assured this poor Trevally fish, a plankton feeder found off Australia's coast, probably never knew what hit him. New Zealand's Business Scoop has the gory details....
Watch CBS Videos Online
"
The Wasteland" Video credit:
CBS News, 60 Minutes
With the constant availability of new gadgets and gizmos for consumers to use, it is not surprising that the cycle of "out with the old, in with the new" has made electronic materials that fastest growing commodity in the waste stream. To accommodate this process, electronics recycling programs have been created across the country, allowing for simpler and safer disposal of these items, such as cell phones, computers and PDAs. Such items usually contain substances - lead, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame-retardants - that are necessary for the electronics to operate, but require special handling when consumers dispose of them. ...
More proof that wood lasts a long time, and renovates rather nicely:
Tropolism brings us this little alpine hut was built 200 years ago, was unused for fifty years, and renovated in 1997 by
Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler. The architects write:
...
Plastic bottles. Image credit:
Chelmsford UK
Somehow I had missed the trend of State government forcing recycling rates up on specific materials by banning landfill disposal. The Daily Southerner reports that a local "tip" in North Carolina,
Edgecombe County Landfill, soon will no longer accept items that citizens and businesses are accustomed to tossing: wooden pallets; plastic bottles; used oil, yard trash, antifreeze, aluminum cans, whole scrap tires, lead acid batteries and oyster shells.
Oyster shells. Who knew that was even an issue?
By 2011 the tip will also be banning disposal of electronic devices....
Way up at the top of Norway, in the land of the midnight sun and the northern lights,
Reiulf Ramstad Architects is planning the world's tallest wooden building at 17 floors.
Inhabitat points us to this proposed "lighthouse of sorts and a beacon of knowledge and development."
...
Today I was pushing my new son around in his stroller to lull him into sleep, when I happened upon a a steel frame house going up. Now I know there is often a goodly amount of recycled steel in such frames and they are very termite resistant. But still it got me pondering that old debate - steel or timber framed buildings? And I remembered a report I saw last month in
The Age newspaper that suggested that timber frame houses were excellent carbon sinks. Not a trick that steel can replicate. According to research:
Almost 100 million tonnes of carbon is stored in timber in Australian houses, with about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent added each year as new houses are built ...
...
Scarpa, a prestigious Italian footwear company, make some of the most popular plastic telemark and alpine touring ski boots on the planet. And in recent times they’ve decided to also look after that planet a tad more.
For they’re making some of their iconic ski boots from Pebax Rnew, a plastic derived from castor oil. This renewable material extracted from the oil rich seed (40% to 60% oil) of the castor oil plant, or
Ricinus communis, has many positive industrial design qualities. (Over and above it’s much proclaimed medicinal properties.)
So much so that it is also finding it’s way into running shoes and sunglasses, which we delve into after the fold....
Permaculture workshop participants gather around their newly created "herb spiral." Photo via Permaship
Looking for something outdoorsy and a bit educational to do this month? Happen to be in or near the general Eastern European area? The folks at the "Permaship" are inviting all keen and enthusiastic comers to join them in rural central Bulgaria for a dirt-cheap five-day course in cooking with the sun and building using the earth....
Kirei (pronounced “key’-ray”) is a company which produces modern, innovative, eco-friendly materials. The word represents the Japanese character meaning “beautiful” or “clean.” Although this material has been covered on TreeHugger before, it's environmental benefits have never been truly explored. It really is a remarkable material. Kirei Board was the companies first product, developed for architects and interior designers as a low-impact, nontoxic material. It's made of Sorghum Straw, KR Bond adhesive, and Poplar wood. Kirei Board has been in use for wall coverings, cabinetry, furniture, flooring, and other decorative and finished products. It is different than particle board because the stalks left over after harvesting the Sorghum plant (which is used to produce food products) are woven tightly and then heat-pressed with a no-added-urea-formaldehyde adhesive. The production of Kirei Board serves as an additional income source for farmers who would otherwise burn or simply discard Sorghum stalks after harvest....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11.17.09
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