The Playful Side of Upcycling

Ryan McElhinney redefines upcycling with his new collection of lamps and mirrors. Transforming trash to treasure, McElhinney has created beautiful sculptural pieces from old toys and some high-gloss lacquer. Check out the rest of the collection here and keep your eye out for more innovative upcycling ideas and products!

Via Buzz Beast.

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Wearing Your Batteries On Your Sleeve

A new research break-through at Stanford University is bringing us one step closer to wearable electronics and conductive fabrics. Beginning their investigation into how carbon nanotubes can be used to create thin, flexible batteries with plastic and paper, the team has now discovered that fabric such as cotton and polyester might be a better alternative.

The team has developed single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) ink that allows them to turn paper and fabric into highly conductive batteries with a remarkably low resistance. In their paper experiments they found that, “The small diameter helps the nanomaterial ink stick strongly to the fibrous paper, making the battery and supercapacitor very durable. The paper supercapacitor may last through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles – at least an order of magnitude more than lithium batteries.” The use of fabric allows for increased flexibility and durability over paper.

BBC reports, “The interwoven fibres of fabrics, like those of paper, are particularly suited to absorbing the nanotube ink, maintaining an electrical connection across the whole area of a garment. Cloth is simply dipped into a batch of nanotube dye, and is then pressed, to thin and even out the coating. The fabric maintains its properties even as it is stretched or folded. Even rinsing the samples in water and wringing them out does not change their electronic properties.”

There is still a lot of research needed in this area, such as how the fabric can be applied to more useful batteries, the safety factors of having carbon nanotubes in fabric that could be worn against human skin, exactly how much more efficient this is over current battery technology, how long the storage capacity will last, and many other important elements. However, the researchers feel that this could be a next step for wearable solar cells, giving our clothing the ability to charge – or become – our gadgets.

Via Treehugger (Nanotechnology Turning Your Cotton T-Shirt and Polyester Pants Into Batteries and Breakthrough? Ordinary Paper + Ink + Nanotubes = Battery)

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VOUWWOW [Vow-Wow] – Wow! It Folds!

Fusing the sustainability of a re-used cardboard box with the structural integrity of the golden ratio of the vaunted triangle, Dutch designers Joost Van Nort’s and Maartje Nuy just won the Thonet Mart Stamprijs 2009 Chair Design Competition for their cardboard folding chair, VOUWWOW. It won recognition for its wise materials use, ease of assembly, portability, and innovative bohemian aesthetic.

Vouwwow forges a new aesthetic—one that acknowledges the need for a new paradigm for all the stuff we produce and discard every day.

Via 3rings.

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Sustainability and Anti-Weapons Initiatives Meet at the London Olympic Stadium

The design proposal for the new 2012 London Olympic Stadium by Populous (formerly HOK Sports) boasts many green building initiatives, not least of which is their use of recycled guns and knives as structural steel. In the last year, the Metropolitan Police have collected more than 52 tonnes of scrap metal from old keys, knives and guns and now it’s being melted down to form the structure of the new stadium!

Sustainability doesn’t stop at the structure, the design also features a host of other environmentally friendly materials such as a façade of hemp.

Furthermore, and possibly most exciting, the entire stadium will be prefab and flat-packed. This construction technique not only significantly reduces the environmental impact of the structure as it is constructed but allows for the entire stadium to be broken down and shipped off to the next host city for reuse. The potential is enormous! Gone are the days of reconstructing massive stadiums every two years for a single use, this new system effectively eliminates wasteful obsolescence.

Currently, talks are underway with Chicago, but London organizers hope that their offer is taken up by whoever wins the games. If the plan goes forward, this would be the largest amount of seats ever moved from one place to the next, and the first time in history that a stadium of this size has been moved.

Via Inhabitat.

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A Greener Cell Phone

Nokia has teamed up with designer James Barber to answer our question Can a Cellphone Really Be Green? Their answer: yes. The new, green (literally) design looks at both energy consumption and the embodied energy in phone production. Because of the short lifespan of the phone, embodied energy was as much as 3 times greater than the energy used by the phone in its lifetime. As a result, Barber has developed a durable phone to last at least 5 years and to be roughly 85% recyclable.

The phone’s planned longevity – as opposed to planned obsolescence – features easy access and removal of components to allow the user to upgrade features as technology improves. The device comes apart with the removal of just one screw and features a list of ingredients on the inside of the cover so users can see just how much is recyclable. For example, the green plastic it is made of can be melted, re-molded and reused without any discoloration.

Problems, however, abound. The phone’s aesthetic design is seriously lacking and finding takers who are willing to hang on to it for 5 years might prove difficult. Contract renewal is every 2 years with major service providers and huge monetary incentives and rebates are offered on the latest and greatest technology, until we see this trend shifting, I doubt many consumers will be persuaded to stick with their current phone beyond the 2 year renewal period. Furthermore, it often seems to be the case that purchasing replacement parts and upgrades, as the design proposes, is more expensive and time-consuming than simply purchasing a new device, especially a cellphone.

Interested in green cellphones? Then you should also check out the Reclaim by Samsung. Featuring 40% corn-based plastic casing, free of phthalates and polyvinyl chloride, and near devoid of brominated flame retardants this phone definitely takes a stride in the green direction. The charger also lights up when the battery is fully charged to remind users to unplug. The manufacturers moved beyond the phone as well, improving other elements of the overall product — the packaging is made from 70% recycled materials; the manual is online only (rather than printed and packaged with the phone); and Sprint will also donate $2 to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre Program for each Reclaim purchase.

However, please remember that the most sustainable and eco-friendly cellphone option is the one you already own and keep for as long as possible!

Via Treehugger and Green Packs.

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Next Generation Of LEDs? Probably Not

Many companies are developing new solutions to cool LED bulbs to increase efficiency. One company, LiquiLEDs has developed an incandescent-shaped bulb filled with liquid to improve cooling. They claim “…Liquidleds is recognized for its unique use of AC LED technology and innovative heat management solution in the field of high power LED lighting. Liquidleds’ proprietary Liquid Immersed Thermal Management SolutionTM and re-make of the Edison light bulb offer superior performance, longer life and lower cost – while being environmentally friendly, reliable and affordable.”

Treehugger, however, is critical, pointing out the potential mess of breaking one and its similarity to Hydralux-4 liquid cooled LED that is being distributed by EternalLEDs and got some bad press not so long ago.

Read the full post here.

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New Glass Sponge: Tough On Groundwater Toxins

A new “swelling glass” sponge developed by Absorbant Materials is soon to be released on the market. The new material, called Obsorb, is a hydrophobic glass that will absorb groundwater toxins but not the water itself.

The glass is released into the water and absorbs volatile molecules such as fuel oil and solvents and then floats to the top where it can be easily skimmed off the surface of the water, the toxins removed, and the glass reused hundreds of times. The material has a huge absorption capacity, able to retain 8 times its original weight. This new technology could be the key to cleaning contaminated water sources as it is a more time and cost effective method than current strategies.

Still in testing, the material has shown tremendous promise. By adding nanoZVI (Zero Valence Iron) and additional reactive metals to Obsorb, the glass becomes specially formulated to capture and remediate TCE plumes. TCE (Trichloroethylene, a colorless liquid for cleaning metal parts) is especially difficult and expensive to clean through traditional means. Often, a site is shut down to let the vapors dissipate naturally, a process that could take decades. Obsorb, however, can do the job in months or even mere weeks. In a test run by Absorbant Materials, Obsorb + nanoZVI was introduced to an extremely concentrated amount of TCE, 5000 ppb (parts per billion). In only 14 days the concentration was down to less than 5 ppb, with two of the samples showing 0 ppb.

With over 4,000 listed contaminated sites in the U.S. alone, the potential for Obsorb is enormous. The venture development group Jumpstart LLC recently invested $250,000 in the product and similar solution for air pollutants called Obsorb Air Mesh is in the development stages.

Via Cleantechnica and Inhabitat.

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Salvaging and Reusing Non-biodegradable Debris to Make Art.

If you’re an artist who uses “found objects” to create your work, you should be sure to check this group out.

Project Vortex is an emerging non-profit organization committed to salvaging and reusing non-biodegradable debris from our oceans and shorelines. Their aim is to transform the garbage into works of art and design. They have the goal of implementing a system for the allocation of this material to artists, designers and innovators who will re-use it in the creation of products that will not re-enter the waste stream. They are building a global database of participants and partnering with clean up efforts worldwide.

Check out their site at projectvortex.org.

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