To Create Without Waste, Using Waste

Everyone, save for Sandhi Schimmel Gold of Phoenix, hates junk mail.

Rather than immediately dispose of the paper nuisances, she turns junk mail into art! Using old cards, advertisements, menus, calendars and even personal tax forms, Gold creates portraits on repurposed canvases and frames with acid free adhesives and lacquers. No programs, dies, or technology of any sort were utilized in the creation of these intricate works. Everything Gold does, she does by hand.

There is a deeper meaning to her art. Gold says, “Where can beauty be found in a culture of conspicuous consumption? I believe we are an aggregate of tiny bits: who we are and where we’ve been – or who we want or pretend to be. Each piece expresses a mood – a calculated effect – high drama, serenity, sexuality or humor.”

Her paper portraits are currently on display at the Springs Preserve Museum in Las Vegas through March 15 of 2010.

Visit Gold’s website to see more, where “sophistication meets sustainability.”

Via TreeHugger.

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Designers Using Recycled Materials: Furniture From Available Objects

Malafor has come up with a simple and easily stored furniture design entitled the Blow Sofa. It is made of 100% recycled and recyclable (inflatable) paper dunnage bags, which are traditionally used for cushioning and stabilizing cargo amidst rocky transportation.

For a comfortable rest, one just has to blow up the bags, which are completely transportable and easy to assemble. The materials used to construct this sofa are the recycled dunnage bags, a metal rack, rubber straps (and air).

More new furniture from Malafor can be found by clicking here.

Via Daily Coverage.

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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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Rethinking Compostables

Wasara has a striking Japanese aesthetic. Their new product line of biodegradable paper plates and cups features an elegant design. Wasara plates are made using renewable reed pulp and bagasse (a fibrous byproduct of sugar production). The forms are organic but with attention to comfort and texture. In line with Japanese creative tradition, Wasara “represents the spirit of living in harmony with nature.” These products are a great example of how design can change our perception of a typically “cheap”, everyday item such as a paper cup or plate.

For more information see www.wasara.jp.

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Recycled Hangers: A Step In The Right Direction

The ubiquitous wire hanger has been around for ever. In fact, 3.5 billion hangers are used every year. One marketing company decided to take a step in the right direction by creating a more intelligent design which also functions as a platform for advertising. No new trees are used in making “EcoHangers”. The hanger itself is constructed from 100% recycled paper and the hook is made from recycled plastic bottle caps. If business have the local resources to do so, they can recycle the entire hanger at the end of it’s life. The hanger is also durable and can be reused. EcoHangers are made from renewable resources and made in the USA. According to them, the demand for their product is helping recyclers to create new programs to reclaim even more post-consumer papers and plastics.

For more information see, hangernetwork.com

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Forget Paper or Plastic, Wrap it Up in Banana Leaves!

Today the majority of disposable goods are wrapped in man-made, often petro-based materials that usually last far longer than the items they protect. With many companies spending millions on R&D searching for more sustainable alternatives, an Israeli designer named Tal Marco has taken a decidedly low-tech and refreshing approach to package design with his use of natural banana leaves. Banana leaves are highly flexible, easy to open and have a naturally waxy surface that is ideal for food applications.

Banana leaves have been used for centuries as plates and for preserving and cooking food in India and South East Asia but have unfortunately been overlooked in most of the western world. Although not a completely novel idea, Marco’s design uses die-cut leaves that can be folded into numerous forms and lend themselves well to many retail applications. His design was showcased in Designboom’s “Dining in 2015” design competition and the concept puts many of the most “environmentally friendly” packages on the market today to shame.

Designboom’s Dining in 2015 Competition

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Paper Water Bottle Replaces Plastic

If water is life’s essential elixir, then bottled water would be a convenient way of giving us this magical liquid on the go. There are an endless number of brands with water formulations ranging from vitamin enhanced to electrolyte rich. Plain old H2O is practically obsolete. Even with all of these options, it’s hard to steer away from your run of the mill plastic bottle. A whopping 16 million bottles are tossed every day. Sure they are recyclable, but only 14% of them actually end up getting recycled. Not only that, but the energy it takes to recycle the bottles is astronomical. Most water companies recommend that you do not reuse their water bottles because of the bacteria that can potentially grow.

As the green trend grows, a demand for an alternative to the common plastic or glass bottle has risen, but using another material to house liquids comes with many challenges. Brainimage thought outside of the plastic by developing a unique food grade 100% recyclable paper bottle that can stand up to liquids of all categories.

There’s no word on when the bottle will be commercially available.

Via the Dieline- a blog dedicated to package design.

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Composite of the Future?

A new composite material being developed plans to revolutionize the composites industry with its extreme properties. The material is called Buckypaper, named after Buckminster Fuller, due to its use of carbon nanotubes that resemble Fullers Geodesic domes.

Buckypaper is said to have an electrical conductivity similar to copper or silicon, that is 10 times lighter and potentially 500 times stronger than steel. Buckypaper gets its strength from the positioning of the carbon nanotubes and their great surface area.

With its extremely high tolerances, Buckypaper will bring vast improvements in structural strength and in weight savings. Plan to see it used in everything from Airplanes and automobiles, to TV’s and other high tech products. With all its great qualities Buckypaper seems to have a bright future, but can anything be said for its sustainable qualities, or plans for its reuse?

Unfortunately there aren’t many sustainable composite alternatives to fiberglass or carbon fiber. It is an industry based on synthetic compounds that are as strong and useful as they are difficult to recycle and reuse. Since Buckypaper is still at a developmental stage, time should be taken for not only maximizing performance, but also addressing issues of reclamation and reuse. Like fiberglass, Buckypaper might be a great material with dismal health and environmental concerns. In today’s world, truly game-changing materials should not only exist in the realm of high performance but also be reclaimable and manufactured with the materials entire life cycle in mind.

Article from the Associated Press

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