This little company from Kenya makes toys from slippers that wash up on the beach. Pictures by Ben Curtis
How glorious is this?! Upcycling at its finest…
(via dead-until-dark)
“Guitars made of shreddered Skateboards by Ezequiel Galasso”
You need to disinfect your water but you have nothing to boil it and you have run out of your water purifying tablets. So what do you do now? Fill those clear plastic coke bottles up with water and then set out in the sun for at least 5 hours. Now drink up!
(via mesatawe)
“mokuseiderz: recycled drumstick robots”
a side project of japan’s noah sound studio, the ‘mokuseiderz’ are warrior figurines made from broken drumsticks. these robot-like toys are the latest product thought up as a way to recycle wast from over- enthusiastic drummers, with pens and keychains also available from the miidori website.
(via downthedaisytrail)
We need a better process to reverse-engineer cars. I’ve commented on similar posts about this topic of automotive-related waste but it’s a huge resource of materials that can be properly recycled (glass, metals, plastics, textiles) and then re-used.
Currently, this is conventional method of how we deal with cars that have met the end of their product lifecycle.
We can do much better….we have to.
“MONIKER”
hand crafted bicycle handlebar made of genuine deer antler and recycle metal
An artist (name?) at UNCED created giant fish sculptures out of plastic bottles to highlight the plastic debris problem.
via Huffpo
(via sunnydrerealestate)
#BadassBirchBed
(via mesatawe)
“More Urban Mining: ID Professor Turns Demolished Houses into Workstations”
Cuffaro’s story is a great example of a win-win-win-win. Used construction materials avoid the garbage dump; the students get the desks they need; Cuffaro now has his own business, and that business in turn supports two local businesses. The days of massive factories creating thousands of American jobs at once may be over, but if we can get thousands of creative entrepreneurs providing employment for a few people apiece, we’ve got a chance.
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#MuricanDesign
“Hiroshi Fuji: Kaeru”
Japanese artist Hiroshi Fuji’s art revolves around “ways of transforming existences that are not valued by society into special existences.” One of the ways he does this is by using recycled materials in his art and inviting others—kids, artists, the public in general—to participate in its creation. He started a toy exchange system called “Kaekko” 13 years ago with over 5000 events having taken place in over 1000 locations across Japan and other countries as well. In hisCentral Kaeru Station – Where have all these toys come from? (Kaeru meaning to change, return, exchange) exhibit, which just closed in Tokyo last weekend, Fuji brought together over 50,000 toys collected over the years in the “Kaekko” project and created an installation that included works (such as this Toy Sauruses) made from the recycled toys, and the opportunity to bid on some of the works, along with interactive workshops for the community.
“PORTRAITS MADE OF COMPUTER KEYS”
Australian artist Guy Whitby, aka WorkByKnight (WBK), draws inspiration from the global transition into the digital era for his unconventionally pixelated portraits. The artist recreates the image of influential celebrities, musicians, and political figures by atypically assembling varied buttons found on your common keyboard, calculators, type writers, and phones.
Using his skilled hand in photo manipulation, WBK produces every piece with close attention to each neatly aligned key that serves as a single pixel. Instead of getting lazy and using the same shape in each square slot, simply assigning the space a different color, the artist utilizes the assortment of buttons found in a diverse mix of devices and designs. The result is a really impressive, time-consuming body of work. WBK’s deviantART gallery has nearly 1,000 images made of computer keys and a mix of analog and digital buttons, in addition to portraits made of actual buttons.
“Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar”
The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and medical industries.
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This is a promising development in the future of renewable materials. Currently, carbon fiber is the leading body part and structural component widely used in racing and high-end automobiles because of its light weight and structural rigidity. It’s slowly making its way into the mass-manufacturing arena but carbon fiber still retains a measure of exclusivity. Unfortunately, it does pose some environmental disadvantages because it is not recyclable and is primarily made of petrochemcial products.
