Category Archives:Concept+Design

17
Apr

Candle Holder Recycles Your Candle Wax for You

Candle Holder that Recycles Wax

How cool is this candle holder that recycles its own wax by design?

The Rekindle Candle is a patent-pending candle holder that diverts melted candle wax into an area with extra wick, so it can be used again. In a Grist interview with Benjamin Shine, the candlestick's designer, he said:

How long it lasts, Shine says, depends on the specific candle — some burn faster, some are drippier — but you might be able to reuse the wax as many as five times.

That's a lot of recovered wax!

The Rekindle Candle isn't available for sale yet, but keep an eye on Shine's blog to see when it's going to be up for sale. In the meantime, you can recycle your candle wax the old fashioned way, by using it to make new candles. Want to see how? Check out our tutorial for how to recycle old candle wax!

h/t: Planetsave

Posted:   |   Categories: Benjamin Shine, candle holder, candle wax, Concept+Design, efficiency, Innovation, Recycling, recycling candle wax
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13
Mar

Method’s Recycled Packaging Made from Ocean Plastic

Method Soap in Recycled Ocean Plastic BottleMethod's new recycled packaging initiative is raising awareness about the plastic gyres polluting our oceans.

One of the biggest problems with single-use plastic is that it makes its way into waterways and eventually into the oceans. Because of the way ocean currents work, plastic pollution clusters into gyres, which are basically just huge dead zones full of our discarded plastic, from large containers and bottles down to the tiny micropellets that give many exfoliating soaps their texture. This plastic also makes its way back onto land, polluting our beaches.

These plastic gyres are destroying the habitats in our oceans, killing wildlife, and endangering our health as well. Rather than contribute to more plastic pollution, the folks at Method have teamed up with the group Sustainable Coastlines to harvest that ocean plastic and turn it into packaging for their hand soap.

Method employees have been hitting the beach in Hawaii, but not with an umbrella drink in hand. Instead, they've been collecting washed up ocean plastic for this project. Scott Cooney at Ecolocalizer attended a talk where Method co-founder Adam Lowry discussed this packaging initiative:

Lowry said the 100% post consumer recycled bottle they made from are impractical and expensive. “This is not the solution to the problem,” he said. “What it is is an opportunity to bring a lot of awareness to the issue.”

Of course, the solution to this problem is something that my friend Andrea was just talking about on her blog: we just plain need to use less plastic. Period.

Ditching the disposable plastic is easier said than done, and I'm a big believer in just doing your best every day. Maybe today you'll remember to bring your own reusable mug to the coffee shop and pack that reusable water bottle too. Tomorrow when you head to the grocery store, grab reusable bags instead of getting plastic ones at the checkout lane. Not ready to ditch packaged foods that come in plastic? What if you could just cut back on those sorts of purchases?

Plastic is so ubiquitous in our lives that even if we all made a few small reductions in our plastic consumption, it would have a huge impact on plastic pollution. What ways can you think of to reduce the disposable plastic that you're using?

Image via Methodhome.com

Posted:   |   Categories: Concept+Design, gyres, Innovation, Method, Packaging, plastic pollution, recycled packaging, Recycling
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11
Mar

Clean Drinking Water Breakthrough: Tree Branch Filter

Clean Drinking Water Filter

A new water filter uses a tree branch as a filter to provide clean, safe drinking water in areas without access to this necessity.

There are millions of people worldwide who live without access to clean drinking water because of water pollution. Many of these people live in rural areas and in poverty, and that presents a big challenge when it comes to creating viable water filtration solutions. You need to change water filters, and that costs money. Water filters don't grow on trees.

Or maybe they do, thanks to a recent breakthrough in clean drinking water technology.

The breakthrough comes from a team at MIT and it uses sapwood as the key component for this low-cost water filtration device. Sapwood isn't a particular sort of tree. It refers to the new wood growth between the bark and the center of a tree branch. That center part is called heartwood. Newer branches tend to have more sapwood, which means this component of the water filter will be easy to find in rural areas where clean drinking water is scarce. Rhot Karnik, one of the mechanical engineers on the project, explains:

There’s huge variation between plants. There could be much better plants out there that are suitable for this process. Ideally, a filter would be a thin slice of wood you could use for a few days, then throw it away and replace at almost no cost. It’s orders of magnitude cheaper than the high-end membranes on the market today.

The MIT team tested their filter with white pine, but the device has the potential to work with many types of wood.

There's no word yet on when this device will become available, but when it does it is going to make a huge difference for people living with contaminated drinking water sources.

via: Ecopreneurist

Posted:   |   Categories: clean drinking water, Concept+Design, Innovation, sapwood, Water, water filter
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04
Mar

Spotted: Upcycled “Hunting Trophies”

Hunting Trophies from Old Bike Parts

I am not a fan of hunting. At all. Call me one of those hippie vegans, but I feel ill when I walk into a room and see the head of a dead animal on the wall. That's why I kind of love these awesome faux hunting trophies made from reclaimed bike parts!

Bicycle Parts Hunting Trophy

Austrian Artist Andreas Scheiger makes these trophies out of bicycle parts that he salvages and repurposes into beautiful pieces of art. All of his work focuses on the surreal, and I love that he's taken an artform that I find nauseating and made it playful and fun!

You can find these and the rest of Scheiger's work on his website.

Posted:   |   Categories: Andreas Scheiger, Concept+Design, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, hunting trophies upcycling, Innovation
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05
Mar

Spotted: Bicycle Wheel Trellis

Bicycle Wheel Trellis

We love offbeat gardening ideas around here, and this bicycle wheel trellis is just a stunning example of creative reuse!

Bike wheels are pretty durable, but a big accident can mean that your old wheel goes kaput. Maybe it gets cracked or bent too far out of shape to be trued again. Whatever the reason, once a bike wheel is dunzo, it's...dunzo. It's not easy to recycle, but just because it's not useful for pedaling anymore doesn't mean it's not useful at all!

Over at the Kirksville Permaculture Education Center, they shared a gallery of photos of this beautiful trellis. What a lovely way to reuse kicked bike wheels!

Of course, most of us don't have a a bunch of bike wheels sitting around our house, but I bet your local bike shop has lots of spent wheels laying around! Next time you're in the neighborhood, pop in! Chances are they'll be happy for you to take those off of their hands. In many places, businesses have to pay to dispose of trash and recycling, so there's a good chance you're helping them out as much as they are helping you.

The Kirksville Permaculture Education Center site didn't have instructions on how to build this trellis, but it looks super simple. Here's how I think it went down:

Materials

  • Wooden H-frame - you can buy one or build your own from reclaimed wood
  • 8 used bike wheels
  • zip ties or popped bike inner tubes

Directions

1. Stake the frame in the ground wherever you want your trellis. Make sure it's nice and secure, because those tires and the plants that grow up them are going to add a lot of weight.

2. Use your zip ties or the inner tubes to link the tires together and link the tire grids to your frame.

3. Plant something that climbs - like grapes, luffa, or beans - at the base of your structure, and watch it go!

Want to see lots more photos of the bike trellis? Click here!

Posted:   |   Categories: bicycle crafts, bike crafts, bike wheel crafts, Concept+Design, DIY, DIY garden, Gardening, Innovation, Living, upcycled garden, Yard+Garden
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15
Jan

Need a crosswalk? Make your own!

portable crosswalk

Let's face it: not every town is pedestrian-friendly. If you're driving, going a block or so out of your way feels like no big deal, but on foot it can be pretty frustrating to have to pass your destination just to cross the street at a crosswalk.

"Urban hacktivist" Florian Riviere made his renegade crosswalk to make everywhere he went more walkable. It's made from a reclaimed piece of carpet, and the artist says he was inspired by video games to reinvent his landscape.

This would be a super easy project to make, if you wanted to create your own pop up crosswalk. All you'd need are:

  • An old piece of carpet
  • White paint
  • Black paint, if your carpet's not dark enough
  • Masking tape

Just measure and tape off your stripes, paint them white, and you're set! If you need to use the black paint, just tape again when the white paint is fully dry, so you have clean lines on your finished crosswalk.

Of course, there is a question of safety here, right? Would motorists in your town stop for pedestrians on a makeshift crosswalk? Here in Atlanta, most drivers won't stop for me at proper crosswalks, even when there are signs that say "Stop for Pedestrians: It's the Law." But Atlanta drivers might be in a special category. How do you think this would go over in your town?

Posted:   |   Categories: Art, Cars+Tranportation, Concept+Design, craftivism, crosswalk, DIY, DIY crosswalk, hacktivism, Innovation, pedestrian-friendly, pedestrians, renegade crosswalk
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