Recycling Skateboards With Style

Looking to get rid of those old skateboards? Rather than throwing them out with the trash, put them to good use and give them to Beck Hickey.  She’s the creative mastermind behind the innovative line of skateboard handbags called Sk8bags.  Hickey began her company after being fired from a waitressing job.  Inspired by her love for skateboarding and its surrounding lifestyle, she envisioned combining old skateboards with posh fabrics to make hip and stylish handbags, and already had some ideas of what it would look like as a final product, but needed a little help.  She called upon a few friends to get a prototype together, and it ended up looking even better than she had imagined.

A lot of work and effort goes into each individual bag, which is really what makes them so unique.  Each bag originates from its own board, making it a one-of-a-kind product - essentially, no two bags are the same.  Hickey makes sure that during the process the skateboard’s design withholds its original character, which is really, the main part of each product.  From her New York workshop, she uses tools such as drills and large table saws to cut and put skateboard parts together, and a sewing machine to stitch it all together with fabric.  She hand-produces each product, which is very time consuming in the end.

Business has quickly picked up for Hickey in the three years since beck(y) was established, mainly because of her distinct style and because she uses recycled goods. As of right now, beck(y)’s Sk8board line consists of three women’s handbags, two messenger bags, and an assortment of belts, belt buckles, and money clips.

Recycled skateboards are what keeps beck(y) going, so in order to keep them coming in, Hickey has established a program called Boards 4 Bowls, whereby for every used board she is given, she donates to a non-profit organization dedicated to building and maintaining public skate parks.  It began for the sole purpose of getting access to more boards, but now she feels good about being able to do something positive and give back to the community.

beck(y)

Reclaiming Tires: Design Within Reach Style

As a part of Design Within Reach’s new business strategies, they’ve been pushing hard to get eco-friendly products to the market. This new product from their rubber tire line was inspired by by the fact that “Americans alone toss out about 300 million tires every year.” These products are modeled using ancient leather-crafting techniques and actually made in Egypt. They are hand-cut and hand-sewn wile being useable indoors and out for planters, carrying containers or simply durable storage. Each container is durable and unique, offering a functional alternative to the landfill. To quote the folks at Design Within Reach, “the big thinkers of the world are working on creative ways to reuse this vast quantity of rubber – ideas include mixing ground-up tires with urethane to create sidewalks or burning them like coal to produce energy.” Their goal is to take this concept to the consumer market, creating smaller but important opportunities for material reuse in the product design industry.

Pet Doo-doo Dilemmea

Are you one of the millions of pet owners who experience second degree duty grief every day? Every time you take your dog for a walk, do you take along a doo-doo bag?  Every time you change the kitty litter, do you scoop it into a plastic bag to have a stink free trash? For all of you pet owners out there, your pets can now do their business and you can get off guilt free. (Disclaimer: this does not solve the actual litter toxicity problem but does although solve excrament disposal issues.)

New to the market this summer, Perf Go Green is introducing a full line of 100% biodegradable kitty litter bags and waste bags of all sizes.  When less than 2% of plastic bags get recycled, it is easy to see the responsible next step. Standard plastic bags take anywhere from 100-500 years to break down, while biodegradable bags take anywhere from 12-24 months to break down leaving far less mass in landfills annually.

Manufactured by Spectrum Plastics, these bags are composed of recycled plastic, OXO-biodegradable additives, and are designed with a perforated film to aid in the decomposition process. Keep your eye peeled and your conscience out of the guilt weeds.

New York e-waste Recycling Legislation

A study by the EPA estimates that New York City residents purchase about 12 million electronic devices each year amounting to 92,000 tons of product a year. When close to 25,000 tons of electronic waste is created each year in New York City (at the cities expense), it comes as no surprise that “The Big Apple” will be the first US city to enforce a electronic-recycling law. Come July 2009 all manufacturers of electronic goods will be required to start collecting old electronics for reuse and recycling, by July 2010 the Department of Sanitation will no longer collect certain electronic instruments, next by 2012 manufacturers will be required to collect 25% of their sold electronics (in weight), and finally by 2018 they will be required to collect 65% of their disposed product.

This requires electonic comanies to initiate a buy-back program. It also requires them to look at their overall manufacturing process and figure out where they can integrate reused parts and recycled materials. In addition, this law will encourage companies and manufacturers to take responsibility for the product they put on the market and design products to have a longer life.

The main concern presented by consumers on this topic is that this recycling initiative will take the cost right back out of the consumers pocket. In opposition, I say that if designed properly, companies could generate less waste, incorporate reused parts, have to source less raw material, and ultimately find themselves with more efficient manufacturing processes that will result in a lower cost.

Smart Compensation for Recycling

RecycleBank offers rewards for recycling. Their services are currently available in the metro areas of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont and Delaware. In an interesting way, both businesses and residents benefit from this program. Points earned by residents are used to buy from participating stores and companies.

To sign up as a business or resident visit recyclebank.com

The Biodegradable Products Institute

The Biodegradable Products Institute, based in New York, evaluates and certifies materials and products that can become compost.

http://www.bpiworld.org/BPI-Public

I recommend checking out the list of materials that have already been approved (divided in categories) as well as reading through their criteria:

http://www.bpiworld.org/BPI-Public/Approved.html

They even have a specific logo that is applied to the approved products, to make sure people know these are biodegradable.

Water Bottle Heat Sink

As osmosis transfers water between our cell walls to the side where water is needed, the water bottle heat sink stores and transfers heat to the location most appropriate. This wall was installed in a Chicago home called the Factor 10 home, designed and retrofitted for the Green Homes for Chicago Program. The home is designed to reduce the environmental impact by a factor of 10.

The simple reused bottle construction works on the simple principles of heat transfer. The bottles hold heat until the house cools down and can make it usable to heat up the room.

So if you have a load of water bottles lying around the home and cant wait for recycling to come, dont just think about it, create your own heat sink.