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Green tech finds (5/26/11)

Article: Green tech finds (5/26/11)

Posted May 26th, 2011, 3:05 PM by


Diaper-eating mushrooms, recycled oil booms, and global warming’s effects on your wi-fi signal… this week’s green tech finds.

  • Solar and wind power for apartment dwellers: Jonathan Globerson’s Greenerator concept allows apartment dwellers to harvest both wind and solar power from their balconies. (via Inhabitat)

  • GM recycling oil booms into Volt parts: Lots of oil booms left over from last year’s BP oil spill. Instead of letting them get tossed into landfills, GM is collecting these materials and recycling them into air-deflecting baffles for the Chevy Volt. (via Earth 911)

Boxsal – the compostable picnic

Article: Boxsal – the compostable picnic

Posted May 23rd, 2011, 11:05 AM by

Last week Gilt Groupe had a sale on the fashionably recyclable picnic boxes made by Boxsal. Or wait, was it Gilt Home or Gilt Taste? Oh, who can keep track anymore. Unlike most Gilt deals, the sale didn’t actually save buyers any money – the picnic boxes still go for $25 on their own website, but at the price who’s complaining? No, the “sale” was really more of a promotion and, well, it worked.

Boxsal, which calls its products “part Oscar de la Renta, part Oscar Meyer,” claims to be “bringing the picnic back into fashion,” and with recyclable cardboard picnic boxes available in three different designs (see images below), it just might.

How sex toys get recycled

Article: How sex toys get recycled

Posted May 20th, 2011, 1:05 PM by

Last week our friends at the UK sex toy retailer LoveHoney.co.uk launched a short, fascinating video about how sex toys (and other stuff like toasters) get recycled. It’s part of their Rabbit Amnesty program: you send them your battered and bruised sex toys and they give you Lovehoney loyalty points (“Oh points”) that you can…

Green tech finds (5/19/11)

Article: Green tech finds (5/19/11)

Posted May 19th, 2011, 3:05 PM by


Off-grid in the Big Apple, and geothermal energy capture that doesn’t cause earthquakes… your green tech finds for the week.

  • The recycling robot: Finnish start-up ZenRobotics claims its ZenRobotics Recycler, a robot designed to sort recyclables from other waste, has correctly identified half the materials presented to it in tests. See the “trailer” for the robot above. (via Good News from Finland)

  • Can electric vehicles work in car sharing programs: Electric Vehicle Update discusses the potential issues, and solutions, for incorporating EVs (with their long charging time) into “on-demand” car sharing services. (via Cleantechies)

Amazing upcycle: old furniture into planters

Article: Amazing upcycle: old furniture into planters

Posted May 12th, 2011, 1:05 PM by

Milan Design Week may be over and done with, but so many incredible ideas made their debut on the vast showroom floor that the event still has us buzzing. Take this deceptively simple idea from Italian designers Peter Bottazzi and Denish Bonapace that turns used up and useless old furniture into artfully rendered homes for plants. Called Da Morto A Orto, or from redundant to abundant, Bottazzi and Bonapace took various pieces of furniture and combined them into hybrids – a rolling desk chair with a wooden dresser drawer and an aluminum lamp or a plush armchair with metal pots sprouting out its back. The combinations are endless and these pictures are the ultimate inspiration for DIY-ers.

Student music video trains peers on recycling

Article: Student music video trains peers on recycling

Posted May 11th, 2011, 2:05 PM by


Ever get frustrated when you see someone throwing away a recyclable item… right next to a recycling bin? Or throw a recyclable item in the wrong container? High school junior CJ Joseph certainly has, and has played the role of “recycling police” (or “recycling nazi” if you prefer) at Queens’ The Renaissance Charter School: “If I see somebody I’m like, ‘You’re throwing that out in the wrong bin. Follow the signs people! I know you’ve heard it: Papers go in the blue (bins), and bottles in the green.”

But as many of us have learned, badgering only gets you so far… so CJ decided to apply her other passion, music, to her recycling fervor, and wrote the song “R to the E to the Cycle.” If you read the lyrics, you’ll see they’re not much different from her “recycling police” instructions… but definitely more catchy!

Green tech finds (5/5/11)

Article: Green tech finds (5/5/11)

Posted May 05th, 2011, 2:05 PM by

Blimps, chicken feathers, and viruses… your green tech finds for the week.

Billboards to beach sandals: Paper Feet

Article: Billboards to beach sandals: Paper Feet

Posted April 26th, 2011, 1:04 PM by


Billboards don’t just “litter” our roadways… they create an awful lot of waste: according to Jimmy Tomczak, founder of Paper Feet, “Every year in the U.S. alone, so much billboard vinyl is thrown away that, if laid out, it would more than cover the state of Massachusetts.” For Tomczak, that mass of printed vinyl going to landfills turned out to be the perfect material for a product he envisioned while an undergrad at the University of Michigan: minimalist “barefoot” sandals that protected his feet while still providing the feel of going shoeless.

Earth Week green tech finds (4/21/11)

Article: Earth Week green tech finds (4/21/11)

Posted April 21st, 2011, 1:04 PM by

A new green smart phone, water from diesel, and the dirtiness of your data… your Earth Week green tech finds.

Recyclemania at Dell: The Austin, TX-based computer and electronics maker announced it recycled more than 150 million pounds of e-waste in 2010. (via GreenTech Pastures)
Google, Department of Energy mapping EV charging stations: The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory is working with Google to map electric vehicle charging stations, along with other alternative vehicle fuels. (via Earth Techling)

Green tech finds (3/31/11)

Article: Green tech finds (3/31/11)

Posted March 31st, 2011, 2:03 PM by

LSA In Action from Sticky Advertising on Vimeo.


Plastic made from meat wastes, and “self-charging” cell phones… these and more in this week’s green tech finds.

  • Floating solar panels: “Offshore renewables” has generally meant wind or wave power, but an Australian company has developed a prototype for floating solar panels… and Indian company Tata Power is going to give the concept a go. Check out the Liquid Solar Array in action above. (via Calfinder’s Residential Solar blog)

  • Plastic bottle schools: Plastic bottles get recycled into all sorts of consumer products… but the Bottle Schools Project is turning them into literal building blocks for schools in the developing world. (via Springwise and @COSEnergy)

Green tech finds (3/10/11)

Article: Green tech finds (3/10/11)

Posted March 10th, 2011, 4:03 PM by


Lots of apps this week… for Freecycling, sharing your juice with electric vehicles drivers, and teaching the kids about rainforest ecosystems.

  • Organize your Freecycling: Like to search for used treasures on service like Freecycle and Freegle? The Trash Nothing online app allows you to organize your activities at various recycling groups.

  • i-Tree 4.0 is out: OK, this won’t garner the attention of the iPad 2, but the latest update of the US Forest Service’s i-Tree online tool for urban and community forest analysis features new applications for tree placement planning for individual land parcels, and “modeling the watershed-scale effects that vegetation has on local hydrology and water quality.”

Green tech finds (3/3/11)

Article: Green tech finds (3/3/11)

Posted March 03rd, 2011, 4:03 PM by


An electric unicycle, iPad recycling, and creating your own bike lane on the go… this week’s green tech finds.

Green tech finds (2/24/11)

Article: Green tech finds (2/24/11)

Posted February 24th, 2011, 2:02 PM by

Going off-grid as economic necessity, quiet compostable chip bags, and green beer… your green tech finds for the week.

Green beer in the Last Frontier: Juneau-based Alaskan Brewing Company faces some relatively unique challenges and costs in making its beer… and has implemented some relatively unique green technology (for a craft brewer, anyway) to keep a lid on both economic and environmental costs. (via Utne Reader)
Adjust the thermostat with your phone: ecobee, the makers of the Smart Thermostat, now offer an Android app that allows you to remotely adjust your home’s temperature.

Electronic waste recycling via "ATM"

Article: Electronic waste recycling via "ATM"

Posted February 23rd, 2011, 3:02 PM by

Got old cell phones or other electronic devices laying around because you plan to recycle them… one day? Yep, so do I… There are options out there for recycling electronics past their prime, but none of them are quite as convenient as curbside pick-up of other materials.

The ecoATM is one approach that’s attempting to close that convenience gap… and also to pay users for recycling their old electronics. If you’ve used a Coinstar or Redbox kiosk, you already understand the concept: one machine can not only accept those old cell phones, but also figure out their value, and pay the user with cash, a gift card, a trade-up certificate, or even a charitable donation. The video above demonstrates how the ecoATM works.

Scrap metal recycling: a money-making byproduct of river clean-up

Article: Scrap metal recycling: a money-making byproduct of river clean-up

Posted January 03rd, 2011, 2:01 PM by

Recycling scrap metal isn’t just an activity for greenies anymore… with prices for these commodities on the rise, collecting aluminum cans or metal construction debris has gotten profitable. I know I even regularly see stories on the local news about copper thieves…

One source of scrap metal that didn’t strike me until reading a story on American Recycler, though, is waterways. Turns out that dumping your broken refrigerator, or your clunker car, in a stream or river was relatively common just a few decades ago. While laws have curtailed the practice, there’s apparently still a lot of junk metal in our waterways… and non-profits dedicated to cleaning them up have discovered a new revenue stream.

Green tech finds (12/16/10)

Article: Green tech finds (12/16/10)

Posted December 16th, 2010, 3:12 PM by

Plastic bottles you can eat, a tiny solar home, and hybrid street sweepers… this week’s green tech finds. Audi’s green history: You likely associate the phrase “green cars” with Toyota and Honda; Denis Duquet at The Car Guide thinks Audi should be on that list, also… More bang from your bike: Fandi Meng’s I-Green battery…

Polli-Bricks, the stuff of miracles

Article: Polli-Bricks, the stuff of miracles

Posted December 07th, 2010, 3:12 PM by

I never thought I would get excited about a brick, but the Polli-Brick is a potentially life-changing building material that can’t be talked up enough. The Polli-Brick is, essentially, a 6-liter plastic bottle made of 100% post-consumer PET. The bottles have a gear-like structure that allows them to lock together into light-weight but insanely strong panels that can withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. Stack enough of these panels and voilà, you have a building.

Green tech finds (12/2/10)

Article: Green tech finds (12/2/10)

Posted December 02nd, 2010, 2:12 PM by

Google Earth’s new “tree view,” state-by-state run-downs on solar power, and LED holiday lights… your green tech finds for the week.

  • Energy Star Plus: Paul Smith at Triplepundit profiles Energy Forward, a Northwest-based electronics efficiency standard that claims to exceed Energy Star standards by 30%.

  • Missouri a great state for solar? That’s right… as are Arkansas, Mississippi, and Wisconsin. A new study out of Arizona State University ranks the optimal state for solar development based on environmental and economic factors.

What do you do with a used vuvuzela?

Article: What do you do with a used vuvuzela?

Posted November 24th, 2010, 2:11 PM by

Last Summer’s World Cup may seem like a distant memory, but if you really got into the South African soccer-fest, you may still have a vuvuzela laying around the house. You’re not alone: according to Triplepundit, sales of these plastic noise horns reportedly reached 20,000 per day during the football frenzy.

Now that the party’s over, what can you do with that vuvuzela… besides tossing it?

Boulder environmental education program focuses on zero waste

Article: Boulder environmental education program focuses on zero waste

Posted November 16th, 2010, 2:11 PM by

Traditionally, environmental education involves classroom lessons supplemented by field trips and hands-on learning. In 24 elementary schools in Boulder, Colorado, however, learning about waste, recycling, and composting involves going to lunch.

OK, that’s not the complete program, but Boulder’s Green Star Schools go beyond the standard environmental education curriculum in focusing on zero waste… and implementing these ideas in the cafeteria, where kids separate out recyclables and compostables.

Recycling wooden pallets for America Recycles Day

Article: Recycling wooden pallets for America Recycles Day

Posted November 15th, 2010, 1:11 PM by

Yep, today is America Recycles Day, so if you spend any time at all in the green blogosphere, you’ll be seeing lots of recycling stories and tips. Much of that will focus on the typical household materials — paper, plastic, and aluminum — along with electronics (since e-waste has become such a huge issue).

My own browsing around this weekend brought me to another item that probably won’t get as much attention: the wooden shipping pallet. If you’ve spent any time at all around any kind of warehouse operation or shipping/receiving docks, you’ve seen these… and know they generally go straight in the dumpster. You may not know, though, that these humble items represent a massive waste of wood.

Recycled t-shirts: a new green fashion trend?

Article: Recycled t-shirts: a new green fashion trend?

Posted November 03rd, 2010, 3:11 PM by

When I wrote about t-shirt refurbisher Stay Vocal in September, I said this was the only company I knew of recycling t-shirts in this particular manner. Turns out the idea is out there… though still relatively under the radar. British green social media site Green Thing is now in the recycled t-shirt business: it’s SAVED initiative takes donated used shirts, adds some embroidery and other fun items, and then sells them.

Green tech finds (10/21/10)

Article: Green tech finds (10/21/10)

Posted October 21st, 2010, 3:10 PM by

Hybrid CFLs, more convenient e-waste recycling, and Steven Chu on Youtube… this week’s green tech finds.

Floating wind turbines pay off: A new study from Energy Technologies Institute finds that floating offshore wind turbines are both technically and economically feasible because of stronger, more consistent winds. (via Cleantechnica)
Grades are out on electronics takeback…: And while no one’d doing a stellar job, Dell, Asus, and Samsung received the highest marks from the Electronic Takeback Coalition in their new Recycling Report Card. (via Mother Jones’ Blue Marble)

Green tech finds (9/16/10)

Article: Green tech finds (9/16/10)

Posted September 16th, 2010, 5:09 PM by

Sell your e-waste, build your own e-bike, and get your Fritos from electric vehicles… your green tech finds for the week.

Green tech patent information goes online: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched its IPC Green Inventory today, which consolidates information on patents and patent applications involving “environmentally sound technology” into one database. (via eGov Monitor)
Middle Eastern mud buildings: Arwa Aburawa at Green Prophet takes note of some of the phenomenal (and sustainable) mud buildings in the Middle East (like the one above).

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