Better blogger

I've now moved on and up in the virtual world of blogging and got myself a fancy wordpress page. So avid followers (!) listen up, to keep up with my cleverly worded, well-thought-out and motivational posts click here.

Definative proof of climate change?

 My first blog post as a volunteer at Project Dirt:

Hello! My name’s Jo and I’m one of the fantastic, new volunteers here at Project Dirt. With barely a few days in, they already have me writing blogs for you lovely dirters to read. I was chucked an article from the Guardian about climate change and was banished from the office until I had blogged about it. Well...maybe it wasn’t quite that mean. But here it is, my very first blog, enjoy!

The great climate change debate. Does climate change exist? Or is it another trendy theory that will soon fade out of fashion and only remain dear to a few ever-lasting believers like velvet flares and platform shoes with live goldfish? Richard Muller intends to find out once for all.

As a professor of physics at Berkeley University and well respected for his work on the big bang theory, ice ages and moon craters, Muller is pretty much a Top Dog when it comes to science stuff. Appealing to all demographics by spending 30 years advising the US government on defence and also writing award winning lectures that became a YouTube phenomenon, if anyone is up to the job of answering this question, Muller is the man to do it.

His project is called The Berkley Earth Project. It’s simple enough. He wants to provide an un-biased, non-political, independently researched assessment of global warming. See, simple.

Starting from scratch he and his team are researching over a 100 years of data from thousands of different instruments all around the world. They will connect them all together and generate the planets temperature changes. Now I know what you’re thinking, this doesn’t sound particularly new and groundbreaking. So let me explain. All the 1.6 billion data points of information that Muller and his team find are being published online for anyone to look at, challenge and discuss. No hiding places, no excuses and no political spinning.

"We are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious," Muller says, over a cup of tea. "We are an independent, non-political, non-partisan group. We will gather the data, do the analysis, present the results and make all of it available. There will be no spin, whatever we find."

This mass production of results isn’t new. Nasa, The National Oceanic and Asmospheric Administration (Noaa) and the Met Office all collect readings from around the world to determine the earth’s average temperature. However, each organisation produces a different set of results due to how they do their workings out. The overall results is roughly the same though: we’re 0.75C hotter now than pre-industrial times.

So why produce another set of results? Muller believes that Nasa, Noaa and the Met Office is not using up to date data and their findings are misrepresented. Big errors such as the 2009 ‘Climategate’ email fiasco certainly don’t install trust into the public and their belief in global warming either. Whatever the reason, these organisations haven’t convinced everyone that climate change is a real threat. Or indeed that it is no threat at all.

So step up Muller and team. Working for a year already and gathering records from 39,340 individual stations worldwide so far the Berkeley team still have a lot of work to do; including encouraging belief in their project from other scientists. For every believer in Berkeley Earth there is a sceptic, with many not having heard of the project or claiming he is doing no more or less than any other research group out there. Either way, his research can only improve and extend our knowledge of climate change, whatever the end result. With universal agreement on theories being the stuff that scientist’s dreams are made from, I believe that we should all keep on avoiding plastic bags, cycling to work and composting to our hearts content. Just in case. And because velvet flares always have the potential to come strutting back onto the catwalk.

http://projectdirt.com/profiles/blogs/definitive-proof-of-climate

The Bicycle Library

Bicycles are a lot like books. Well, actually they’re not. But now you can borrow a bike in the same way you can borrow a book. The Bicycle Library in London lets you try out their range of bikes to see which one suits you. Helping to find the perfect bike-human coupling means that out of love, rejected bikes rusting alone in the garden will become a thing of the past and you'll never need to buy another, slightly shinier bike again.

If you want a bike to play in the park, a bike for commuting to work or a bike for some mountain cycling the Bicycle Library has it all. With expert advice from their ‘Librarian’ they will help you find your perfect two wheeled machine for a transport relationship based on long term love and comfort, not lust for those multitude of gears and shiny handlebars.


You can give your chosen bike a ride there and then on their special covered track or take it away for up to 10 days and see how your new transport system settles into your life. If you love it you can buy it and it’ll be yours to cycle forever more. If it’s not quite Mr Right then simply take it back and try a different one. Once you've picked your perfect bike you need never look back (except to check for oncoming traffic) and can just stick with what you've got.


(Spotted on Springwise)
http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/the_bike_borrowing_library

The Long And Windy Road

The Wind Explorer is the first wind and lithium-ion battery powered car to travel across a whole continent. After 6 months of building, this emission free car was blown across Australia to inspire the use of the elements in travel. Charging the batteries overnight with mobile wind turbines perched on a six-meter high telescopic mast made of bamboo, the 440 pound car sped along the south coast of Australia alternating between wind and battery power. Very cool.

Driven by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer and travelling at up to 80 mph, the Wind Explorer completed the 3,100 mile test drive in two and a half weeks with a total electricity cost of just $10. The idea behind this noiseless, ultra green car was to encourage travelling and adventure without the guilty conscience that comes with current, fuel guzzling transport. The ever practical German designers realised that cars powered by kites are slightly impractical in most day-to-day travelling situations and are using the windmobile to inspire further research and development into alternative travel. With many car industries turning their focus to vehicles better for the environment, quieter, cleaner cars might be blowing onto our roads sooner than we think.


(Spotted on Fast Company)

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/the_long_and_windy_road 

Green Beer and Piss Whiskey

Breweries are one the more recent companies to start thinking about their carbon footprint. With the help of a new, (almost) all-consuming piece of machinery, beer factories are starting to save energy by creating their own whilst cutting down on unusable waste.


Some of the ingredients in beer; hops, barley and yeast create a natural gas that can be captured using a closed-loop recycling system and used as fuel to power the brewery. This system, named the Biphase Orbicular Biodigester™ System (or BOB) was developed by PurposeEnergy and is believed to be first and only one in the world. It produces 200 cubic feet of biogas per minute which helps to power the energy-intensive brewing process.


Installed last year in Vermont brewery Magic Hat, it is estimated that a saving of $2 a barrel is being recovered, not an amount to be sniffed at if you’re a large company.


So if you want to save on waste disposal and energy then BOB’s your...brewery recycling system.


P.S- BOB isn’t the only all-consuming alcohol idea, last year we blogged about James Gilpin and his all-consuming whiskey made from human urine. Probably not an experiment to be tried at home.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/if_you_can’t_say_the_word_‘brewery’_then_don’t_try_to_say_‘brewery_powered_brewery_’_just_read_about_it

Add Valuable Inches With This Chinese-Made Pencil Enlarger

Don’t you just hate it when your pencil gets too small to hold? Or when that loud-mouthed suit is talking so loudly into his phone next to you on the train that you snap your pencil in two in a wave of suppressed rage? Gazing sadly at that tiny amount of wood you think of all the words it was going to write, all the scribbles it was going to sketch and all the sudoku’s it was going to lightly and hesitantly fill in.


But wait! Your pencil isn’t redundant. Just because it’s smaller doesn’t mean it is unusable. There are still pages of messy notes and meandering doodles left your mini-pencil. Check out our brilliant illustrator and very talented friend, Guillaume Cornet as he draws to the end of the pencil to the edge of the page.

But my hands are too big! I can’t hold that tiny pencil! Ok ok, here is a handy, if slightly ridiculous, design to get you using up those remnants of pencils. 1 + 1 = 1 Pencil. No, I haven’t got my maths wrong, this design gets you adding your stubby pencils to the plastic connector, instantly lengthening it to the size of a brand new pencil. Unfortunately this design only comes in plastic which is not such a green thing. So how about this, when your pencil is beginning to become too teeny for your fingers, slot in the Continuous Pencil at the end and keep on scribbling. The pencil extender creates a smooth transition from old to new, using up all the pencil dregs. The drawback being that you need to buy the Continuous Pencil in the first place as this lengthening device only works on other Continuous Pencils.

So take our advice, forget the fancy gadgets but don’t forget your stubby little pencils. Stick with what you’ve got and use it to the very last dot.

(Spotted on Yanko Design) 

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/add_valuable_inches_with_this_chinese_made_pencil_enlarger 

Yes, Headphones Made From Guitars and Cardigans

If you love gadgets but with a green twist then check out these beautifully designed headphones by Ashcraft Aria. With wood recycled from acoustic guitars, ear cups from reclaimed aluminium and pre-worn leather lining from bags, sweaters and jackets these earphones are a recycling-mad, music-lover’s dream come true.


Like this but prefer to stick with what you’ve got? Check out our hacked earphones. They work just as beautifully and have their own aesthetic quality and individual style...


(Spotted on Yanko Design)

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/yes_headphones_made_from_guitars_and_cardigans

Quieter crisps revisited

Good news! Frito-Lay, the crisp company have reintroduced their compostable crisp packets. I wrote about their new bags a while back when the backlash hit. They bought this clever change about in 2009 but a few, some would call them 'idiots', complained that this green idea was too noisy and it was 'ruining' their crisp eating experience. So Frito-Lay took their made-from-plants bags off the market (except in more open-minded Canada) and returned to plastic packets.

But now, after months of research into how to reduce the decibels of their SunChips bags, they have cracked it. Using two layers, joined together with a rubber like adhesive to help absorb the sound, these new biodegradable bags are around 10-15 decibels quieter.

In Canada the big switch is taking place whilst in America only Ready Salted are being replaced with the new, quieter bag as an experienmental platform. If no noise is made about the swap, then all their flavours will become wrapped in doubled-layered, rubbery plantness and not plastic.
Lets hope that this positive step forward is accepted by those picky, pathetic, sound-sensitive Americans that kicked up such a fuss last time.

Flushing Nemo (over-rinsed dish, asphyxiated fish)

It’s easy enough to tell people to use less water and turn off the taps when you’re not using them but to actually get the message through can sometimes be a bit harder. Designer Yan Lu has come up with a, slightly non-fish friendly, new idea to get the significance of water saving into people’s minds.

His new wash basin, Poor Little Fish, features a sink below a fish bowl complete with live fish swimming happily around and around and around. As you use water, the fish bowl slowly drains away – although never completely, reminding you in quite a vivid way of your H2O consumption. But before you get too distressed about the poor little fish, the water draining away from his bowl isn’t actually washing your hands and gurgling down the plug hole. Your water comes from the mains whilst his drains into a hidden reservoir. After the tap is turned off, the fish bowl slowly refills.

Even though the fish is in no danger of being sucked down the plug hole, I can’t imagine he’s all that happy at his ever changing water level at home. Any design that makes people rethink their water consumption is fantastic and although we think this idea is fab as a concept, it’s not the most practical of solutions.

A less scaly concept is the +-Water meter. Easily slotted onto your tap, this design doesn't just tell you how much water you've used but converts it into how much money each splash will cost you. Measuring water usage in terms of pounds rather than litres is so much easier to comprehend and much more likely to get you saving not only your pennies but also the planet, one hand wash at a time.

(Spotted on Yanko Design)

Bottle Building

Following on from my post about Taiwan’s unique recyclingsystem, I’m popping back there (not literally unfortunately) to gush about another clever Taiwanese project: the first fully functional recycled building.

Joint with its obsession for fast food comes Taiwan’s capability to drink its way through 4.6 billion plastic water bottles each year. Even with its daily musical rubbish trucks bundling away the recycling, only 4% of plastic bottles get recycled in Taiwan leaving behind enormous amounts in rubbish bins and floating about in the ocean. The Far Eastern Group, inspired by their designers love of bottled tea, picked this ecologically frowned upon material for their upcycling project of rather large proportions. The ecoARKPavillion in Taipei.

Made from 1.5 million recycled PET bottles (taken straight from the Taiwanese Waste Stream), this 130m by 40m, nine story construction takes a lot of plastic out of the dump, recycling it into a beautiful, transparent and eco-friendly building. The plastic bottles are moulded into honeycomb, geometric Polli-Bricks that slot together with no gaps. The solid structure is strong enough to withhold typhoons and earthquakes – perfect for our recent, unreliable weather conditions.

The bottles can be filled with air to deflect heat keeping the buildings cool or packed with sand or water to absorb sunlight and warm the inside. The outside is coated in a fireproof laminate to prevent fire hazards, with the inside sporting the normal smoke detectors and sprinkler systems found in normal brick and concrete buildings. Lit by sunlight during the day and energy saving LED lights at night, this building is very low in new carbon. It even houses a falling screen of rain-water to act as air conditioning.

We all see rubbish being kicked about the streets and plastic bottles can be found blown into every corner and caught up in any bush all over the country. Stubbornly strong, they withstand a lot of scuffing, rolling and bashing showing only a few scratches as evidence. If we know that PET bottles don’t decompose then let’s use this to our advantage and make stuff with them!

Recyclicity

Recycling is bigger than ever and you can find a recycled version of many household items; toilet roll, tissues, glass bottles, notebooks, pencils and plastic bags (not that we condone plastic bags!) In Enschede, in the Netherlands two architects, Jan Jongert and Jeroen Bergsma of 2012Architects, have taken on a larger item and built a recycled house. Made from discarded local material, found using Google Earth to scout out the surrounded 9 mile radius, the team first collected their building materials then designed the house. 

Using a process that they have named recyclicity, they scoured the area for anything that could be recycled, upcycled and reused to build a house and everything in it. 60% of the structure is made from reclaimed materials whilst 90% of the interior was found and remade. Jongert and Jeroen even leafleted the neighbourhood asking for broken umbrellas to transform into lighting.

The idea sprung up when Jongert and Jeroen were studying at university, using recycled materials to create small scale models. Why not move this up to a larger dimension? Villa Welpeloo is the culmination of this idea and whole lot of recycling.

At first glance this beautiful recycled house looks like most newly-designed modern homes with crisp lines and spacious layout. When you look a little closer however the uniqueness of the design pops out. Open the white fronted kitchen drawers and the side reveals its previous life as advertising boards, turn on the lights and see the skeleton of umbrellas holding the bulb aloft.

The steel framework of the building is constructed from disused machinery of a nearby textile mill and clad wood scrapped from 600 dismantled cable reels, heat treated in a natural Dutch weatherproofing technique known as the PLATO process.

Only designing the house after the materials have been found could make for a messy looking building but the upcycled house is the perfect blend of architectural beauty and mass recycling.

 

(Spotted on Dwell) 

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/the_all_consuming_house_built_with_the_help_of_google_earth 

Green Valentine's

You can’t keep denying it. It’s almost here. Valentine’s day can be as wasteful as Christmas and has the added bonus of only being for the loved up. Topped only by Christmas, Valentine’s Day encourages the most cards to be sent - about a billion being posted every year. Consider this a guide to a green-hearted alternative Valentine’s Day (and we don’t mean bitter and jealous).

 
Cards


If you are feeling so inclined to send your loved one a card this year then why not swap your physical card for an e-card. Better yet, send the one you love - or anyone in fact - a body warming Green Thing Valentine.


If you love opening envelopes (especially when it doesn’t contain a bill) then consider cards made from tree-free paper. Paper made from wood is actually a relatively new concept. Whilst paper made from rags came into production in China in the 2nd Century, wood based paper was only discovered in 1844. Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on Hemp paper, made by Benjamin Franklin’s mill. True story.


Paper can be made from bananas, mangos, cotton, elephant poo (bacteria and smell-free), straw, coconut, jute and bagasse (the remaining pulp from sugar cane), just to name a few. The possibilties are endless.

If an elephant poo card just isn’t special enough, carve your own card. A personal, fun and sustainably sourced wooden’ card’ that you scratch your own message into. Just be careful when carving, you don’t want to spend Valentine’s Day in hospital.


Flowers
If you’re saying it with flowers, try and find ones that have travelled the least. With most flowers being flown over from Europe, Africa and South America the carbon cost of those few pretty petals is gigantic. How about felt flowers?

They’ll never wilt and die and will last for years, helping you to stick with what you’ve got.


Another idea is buying seeds and planting them for your own bouquet of flowers next year. Or plant a tree if you feel your relationship is going to last long enough to see it fully grown. Awww.


Other Unconsuming Gifts

If you don’t want to consume but would like a little something to show your feelings, how about adopting love? Adopt A Word have put the word Love on eBay to sell to the most romantic soul (well, the highest bidder) with all proceeds going to I Can, the children’s communication charity. Maybe try being more original and adopt a word that means something to you.

Oxfam Unwrapped is always a great idea for presents that don’t cost the earth. Buy a gift that gets given to a worthy receiver and won’t be forgotten by the following year. For the book lover, buy a child’s school books for a year. For the sun worshippers buy solar panels. For the animal lover buy a goat for a village. There are tons of fun and useful gifts that will lend a helping hand where it’s needed most. Besides, nothing says I love you more than a hygiene set and a goat.

 10% of engagements happen on Valentine’s Day. If V-Day is going to be the day for popping the big question, why not opt for a beautifully hand-crafted, wooden ring.

Vintage and reused rings are another fantastic option. But be careful when reusing. Your grandmother’s old ring – a definite, heart warming yes. Your ex-wife’s old ring – a suddenly single no.


Activities

How about a romantic night in for two? Seasonal veg is a yummy way forward. Add some organic wine and a bamboo picnic set and you’re all set for a loved up meal. Don’t forget to plug out and use candles to light your Valentine’s Day. Or better yet, do it in the dark.


If you’re celebrating away from home consider traincation. With so much beautiful countryside in Britain there’s no need to fly off somewhere else, it’s all on your doorstep (or at least the train stations doorstep).


Many love stories have blossomed from walking. Gusty and Ford, for example. Wherever you are and whoever you’re with, go for a walk, ride your bikes and explore new places.


So forget the overblown, carbon costly and consumerist declarations of everlasting love. Find that special someone, and have an all-consuming special day.


Ps- Don't forget if you’re creating human heat then be safe; use an organic, carbon neutral condom.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/green_thing_s_guide_to_a_green_valentine_s

The Dress That Pollinates

 The bees are dying. Not the Isle of Wight band, but the little buzzy insects. It’s a hard campaign for most people to sympathise with. Nobody looks back fondly on the day they first got stung by a bee. But nevertheless, bees are essential to the growing of a third of our foods. Plus, honey is delicious.

The decline in bees has received some serious attention recently with the general consensus being that ‘something must be done’.  The fact about humans dying out within four years of bee extinction buzzed through my mind and, after a little Wikipedia research I came to the conclusion that this ‘fact’ wasn’t quoted by Einstein and may not be 100% correct. But the truth remains that due to less flower populated areas and more pesticides being used, the bees are having a tough time and it’s in our interest to help them.

Insect lover and artist, Karen Ingham, has designed a collection of dresses to give the bees a helping wing. With designs inspired by scanned electron microscopy images of plant pollen grains linked to endangered pollinators and coated with a nectar replica, these clothes will attract the buzzing insects and feed them some much needed energy. In simple terms, the dresses have a bright and crazy pattern that resembles the pollen in flowers that is so attractive to bees. Once attracted, the bees receive free food that enables them to buzz off and pollinate plants. 

A quick bee fact: they feed on both pollen and nectar.  Nectar gives them energy and pollen gives them nutrients. So whilst they may not be pollinating the dress, they will be eating up energy to fly off to pollinate our food for us. The clothes are aimed at increasing the number of bees by feeding and promoting repopulation. Not sure a bee-encouraging dress is suitable for work? Not to worry, Karen has produced both day time bee dresses and night time moth dresses. An insect for every occasion.

Whilst we may want the bees to live, we probably don’t want them to live on us. The Pollinator Frocks can be hung outside like regular washing to attract bees with minimal bee-on-human contact. They are also going to be hung at a variety of events in different environments to raise public awareness and test their efficiency.

Wearing bee food isn’t the only way to help save the bees though. There are honey websites, bee-friendly flowers, wild bee-houses and of course, having a beard of bees. Sainsburys also lives up to its nectar points promise and keep bees too.

So this summer, let’s all be a bit friendlier to the bees.

P.S Treating fabric with bee food isn’t the only way to reuse material. Send us your old unloved tshirts and we’ll help them become Saved.

(Spotted on Inhabitat) 

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/the_dress_that_pollinates

Turbine Tunnels

Check out one of the design entries for this year’s GE Ecomagination Challenge. On first glance it’s your standard road tunnel but a closer look reveals its energy creating potential. The CitySpeed Turbine designed by Alessandra Rapaccini and Giacomo Sanna can help create energy for cities by utilising the strong air currents within the tunnel to power turbines. These modular turbines generate energy in the same way that a windmill does, only without the extra space that a windmill needs. This new design can be put into action in existing tunnels and is a great urban solution to producing energy.

The CitySpeed Turbine can work in both train and car tunnels. With hundreds of thousands of cars, trains and even bikes travelling around cities every day (202,000 passing through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels in New York every 24 hours) the possibility for inner city power production is gigantic.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/turbine_tunnels

Born To Walk

Here is Do The Green Thing's new Born to Walk video. Its fantastically fun and (hopefully) will get you all thinking about, and actually participating in, walking. So get going!

Human Heated Buildings

Recently I have been pondering the possibility of using human heat to warm up houses and offices. Don’t start picturing people running around in circles and breathing more to heat up the room. I’m talking about the natural heat that humans produce. This idea is best explained by looking at Stockholm railway station. The thousands of commuters that pass through its high ceiling-ed halls, rushing for trains and working up a sweat elbowing other suits and tourists out the way, generate quite a high temperature. This air gets sucked out the station and whizzed next door through insulated tubes where it is used to boil up some water. This hot H20 gets pumped around the neighbouring offices via the radiators. Bam, human heated buildings. The system reduces the office energy bills by a rather sizeable 25%.

Fantastic, so what next? We need places that produce enough heat to make it worthwhile.  PING!  Energy saving lightbulb flicks on over head. The gym. The hottest, sweatiest room that we ever go in (if of course we actually go). The heat produced in gyms surely could get sucked out and, in Stockholm style, be redirected and turned into central heating for somewhere considerably cooler.

In Redditch this week plans have been announced for transferring the substantial heat, up to 800 degrees C, from the crematorium toheat the swimming pool next door. Currently the incinerators breath this heat into the air, losing forever the energy and all its heating possibilities.

Sounds like a perfect solution doesn’t it? People doing what they’re constantly being told to do; saving energy, reducing their carbon footprint, making a difference. But wait a minute, there is that one little rule that I’ve overlooked. You must save energy, reduce your carbon footprint and make a difference but, the decree I forgot, it must not be ‘eerie’. Many locals are not happy with using the heat from the crematorium to warm up the pool, labelling it ‘sick’ and deeming it insensitive.  Whilst not wanting to further upset those who have lost a loved one, I truly hope that this idea from a forward thinking borough gets granted full approval and congratulated on its green credentials rather than becoming just another hot air plan for carbon-saving that just billows away into nothingness.

Its All About The E-Bikes

You want to swap your carbon-producing commute to a greener option, really you do, but the thought of all that cycling makes you want to sit down and have a little rest. If old fashioned push bikes aren’t for you then maybe the new e-bikes are.

Volkswagen have designed a new electric scooter, the Bik.e, that fits snugly into the spare tyre space in your boot, recharging as your drive. Then when four wheels can go no further out comes the compact two wheeler. Great for short distances but not for a long commute as once the bike’s out of juice its back to walking as the Bik.e has no pedals.

  

In Spain, Fiat is offering a replacement electric bike instead of the standard courtesy car when your vehicle is being fixed to encourage greener traveling and sustainable mobility.  If the trial goes well Fiat will be offering electric bikes to its customers all over Europe; the perfect chance for e-bikes to ride into the spotlight and steal the transport show.

At the University of Graz in Austria a new e-bike chargingsystem has been built and what’s more, it’s free. Complete with lockers, the campus charging system enables the green-minded students to safely recharge their bikes whilst attending lectures. This sort of green planning helps encourage people to take the more environmentally friendly option and its set to take Austria by storm with similar energy stations set to be installed at work offices, hotels, shopping centres and petrol stations.

And for those BMX types out there, how about this new design, a saddle-less bike that charges as you ride. The Hydromagnificence on Two Wheels had a super-light tubular frame it leaves a bit of weight allowance to be taken up by the camera installed to film your journey and show to your friends.

If cycling doesn't push your buttons then how about this compromise, the Biona. A battery powered city motorbike minus most of the metal and plastic components (and the conventional motorbike style). Made mainly of wood, with batteries small enough to fit into your pocket and an LED lighting system this bike could well be the future of urban travel. 

So no need to break a sweat, just ditch the car and climb onto an e-bike.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/it_s_all_about_the_e_bikes 

Taiwan's Rubbish

Taiwan is a small island and as such has no space for dumps and piles of rubbish. With most inhabitants living in apartment buildings and flats, communal bins, if they are even available, fill up fast. For many years Taiwan was known for its bags of rubbish rotting on pavements with rats swarming around, happily living off the waste of the Taiwanese.

Until five years ago when along came the musical rubbish truck with some rules on rubbish and recycling. Every evening a rubbish truck will pass along the city streets playing its easily recognisable tune, calling all inhabitants out of their homes with their blue bags of rubbish. Except it isn’t all just rubbish. Blue bags contain waste that is only fit for the dump. Plastics, metals and papers are deposited into the correct receptacles and food waste is separated into a third vessel. Certain days call for certain recyclables. And what if you bring plastics on paper day? Expect a mini lecture on the importance of recycling but your plastics will still be accepted.

  

  

The blue rubbish bags are all part of the scheme. These bags have to be paid for to discourage creating too much garbage. This idea is fairer than suggestions of a flat rate charge for too much rubbish as proposed in other countries such as Britain. The more junk you create the more money you pay. I am unsure of the sustainability of these plastic sacks however. Do they biodegrade? Could another material be more environmental?

Another incentive created by these (possibly questionable) blue bags is to separate your waste from your recyclables. The less non-reusable and non-compostable waste the less money spent on blue bags.

So onto the kitchen waste. This all gets slopped into a container on the truck and 75% gets sold to pig farmers with the remaining sum used as fertiliser. The pig farmers pick out the dangerous fish bones and other inedibles, boil it all up and feed it to their pigs.

It might sound like a lot of dirty work sorting out your waste into these three piles but most people already sort out rubbish from recycling and a growing number of people have compost bins. In a hot country such a Taiwan, this daily sort helps to keep down the abundance of cockroaches and rats that infest their overflowing bins. The evening collection also serves as a sociable community pastime where everyone congregates on the streets and catches up with friends and neighbours.

Image from: Cracking The Egg

 But it isn’t just enforced at home, restaurants and workplaces are also required to separate out their trash. Including McDonalds.

 

Of course, it has its flaws. People who are not around when the rubbish trucks melodically pass by miss out and therefore need to find another way to rid themselves of their rubbish. Public bins are often stuffed with blue bags of litter leading to the reduced amount of dustbins on the street. Others sneak their junk to work to avoid it piling up at home. But what plan isn’t without blemishes?

One of the key successes of this ‘trash doesn’t touch the ground’ scheme is that the relatively small area of Taiwan means that the sale of city approved rubbish bags can exist.  Government issue bin bags here in Britain would be ignored in favour of the cheapest or the newly celebrity endorsed bin bag. This idea would need a few changes to survive in Britain but I believe it could have an impact. We don’t need daily refuse collection – and the budget wouldn’t allow it, all houses and apartment buildings have sufficient sized collection bins and we have a recycling bin system in place. The problem being that most people ignore or abuse it. It still surprises me when I open our recycling bin and see teabags, clingfilm and, more bizarrely but only the once, bubblewrap.  But with so many different types of plastic in production for packaging food, shampoo and whatever the bubblewrap was previously protecting, it’s no wonder that people get confused, or more likely frustrated, and just dump anything in there. The collection of kitchen waste would dramatically reduce the contents of Britain’s bin bags with it being a well known fact that we throw away a considerable portion of the food we buy.

The system in Taiwan means that the Taiwanese produce the least amount of un-reusable waste per person than any other developed country. It has helped clean up their streets and more importantly taught the country about recycling with every resident responsible for every bottle, every fish bone and every plastic bag they use.

Computer Cities

American Artist Franco Recchia has created mini 3D landscapes of cities by recycling old computers that would otherwise be thrown away and come to rest in land fill sites never to used again. Some pieces are recreations of well known American cities – Manhattan, Boston, Central Park.

(Image: Franco Recchia)

His media is a mixture of metals odds and ends such as heat sinks, RAMs, disk controllers, electronic connectors, chipsets, microprocessors and TV tuners, anything that you can pull out of a computer basically. For most of us, an old broken computer is lost to the world with no hope of us being able to tinker about and fix, let alone reuse. But by salvaging the insides of computers Franco brings them back from the brink of the rubbish dump in the form of a metallic city and gives them a new, and beautiful, lease of life.

 (Image: Franco Recchia)

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/computer_cities 

Waste Not One Drop

Here's a lovely idea that's perfect for the weather we're having at the moment in London. The Cavity Flowerpot is an umbrella stand that catches the waste rain water dripping off your brolly and rather than leaving it in a big puddle by the door, collects it and reuses it to water the roots of a plant, handily embedded inside.

(Spotted on Yanko Design)

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/waste_not_one_drop

Wooden You Like One Of These?

Designers are always coming up with hot new ideas that pull at your consumer strings and when your eyes love that new product, your Green reflexes don’t always kick in in time to check its environmental credentials. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating buying new things but if you do have to buy something new, make sure it’s something eco-friendly like these designs:

Koostik have created a wooden iPhone speaker dock. Ok, that sounds fine, nothing too exciting. Did I mention it doesn’t use electricity? That’s right, these gorgeous speakers work on the acoustics from your iPhone (and 4th generation iPod Touch) and resonate the sound so it’s up to 4 times louder using no wires and no electricity. They are all hand crafted by Jim, the designer and woodworker responsible for this fantastically green idea.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to be on time (and be an eco-fashionista) then WeWOOD’s beautifully crafted wooden watches are just for you. Made from wood that would otherwise go to waste, these watches come in four different colours, based on the type of the wood. Not only do they look amazing and are completely free from artificial and toxic materials but for every watch sold WeWOOD promise to plant a tree to help save Mother Nature, one watch at a time.

This one is for the little ones. Tegu is a new take on an old toy that is educational, defies gravity (they've got hidden magnets inside) and made from eco-friendly hardwoods. Although aimed for the young ones, these can be great fun for all ages.

Ever thought about growing your own stool? You’ll need to have a bit of patience but it’ll definitely be worth the wait. Either make your own or assemble the flat-pack guide, plant your saplings and in five years you’ll have your very own, home-grown, sturdy stool.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/wooden_you_like

Cardboard House

Artist David Stark decided to take the huge amount of cardboard waste produced from the opening of a friend’s retail store and design it into something fantastic.

A collection of cardboard furniture and home accessories was fashioned from the disused packaging ranging from a 10ft lamp to laser cut clocks. Old catalogues were shredded and reused and recreated into a comfy looking armchair and large topiary plant.

My personal favourites are the simple but stylish vases (yes, they wouldn’t be particularly practical I admit) and the huge and very realistic cacti – minus the sharp bits.

Next time you’re feeling creative, have a rummage through your recycling bin (be careful of the opened tins) and see what you can make.


For more cardboard creativity visit: David Stark Sketchbook.


Ps- At Green Thing we've got a particular fondness for creativity from cardboard, particularly for a purpose. Have a look at our Future Tents project, another example of using cardboard to create something sustainable and fantastic.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/cardboard_house