Truth About Bottled Water

i.imgur.com

Light from a water bottle could brighten millions of poor homes (w/ video)

From: http://www.physorg.com/

Screenshot of a solar bottle bulb from the video below.
Image credit: Isang Litrong Liwanag

As simple as it sounds, a one-liter plastic bottle filled with purified water and some bleach could serve as a light bulb for some of the millions of people who live without electricity. Originally developed by MIT students, the "solar bottle bulb" is now being distributed by the MyShelter Foundation to homes throughout the Philippines. The foundation’s goal is to use this alternative source of daylight to brighten one million homes in the country by 2012.

In order to make the water bottles "light up," holes are cut in the metal roofs of homes and a bottle is placed and sealed into each hole so that its lower half emerges from the ceiling. The clear water disperses the light in all directions through refraction, which can provide a luminosity that is equivalent to a 55-watt electric light bulb, according to the MyShelter Foundation. The bleach prevents mold growth so that the bulbs can last for up to five years.

Although the solar bottle bulb only works during the day, it can meet the needs of many of the people in Manila, Philippines, and other cities, where the homes are so close together that very little sunlight can enter through the windows. As a result, the homes are dark even during the day.

Residents describe the difference that the solar bottle bulb has made. Video credit: Isang Litrong Liwanag

The solar bottle bulbs’ advantages include sustainability and safety; compared with candles or faulty electrical connections, they aren’t a fire hazard. The bulbs are also inexpensive to make and install, and of course have no operating costs while in use.

The MyShelter Foundation is promoting the solar bottle bulbs as the Isang Litrong Liwanag ("A Liter of Light") project. In Manila, the city government paid for the bulbs while the foundation is training residents on how to make and install them.

via: Treehugger
© 2011 PhysOrg.com

Sunglasses Made From Skateboards (Video)

More Skateboarding Videos

People will make sunglasses out of anything these days and the guys from Vuerich B are no exception

Pepsi Ups Ante on Plant-Based Bottles with 100% Non-Plastic Bottle

By Jonathan Bardelline
From: http://www.greenbiz.com/

PURCHASE, NY — PepsiCo announced a response to Coca-Cola's PlantBottle, but unlike Coke's bottle, which is only 30 percent plant-based at the time, Pepsi says its will be completely derived from plants.
Pepsi will make its bottles out of switch grass, pine bark and corn husks, and like with Coke's PlantBottle, they're using natural materials to make PET plastic, so it can be recycled along with their current petroleum-based plastic bottles.

The beverage giant hopes to also use orange and potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its Tropicana, Quaker and other operations in the future to make the bottles.
Pepsi will do a pilot run of the plant-based bottles in 2012, followed by commercialization based on the results of the test run.

While Coca-Cola beat Pepsi to putting out drinks in bottles made from plants first, Pepsi has the chance to put out the first recyclable bottle derived entirely from plants by a major company.
Coca-Cola's PlantBottles, which are also being used for Heinz ketchup and Odwalla juices, are still 70 percent petroleum-based. Scott Vitters, the company's global director of sustainable packaging, wrote in a GreenBiz.com post last year:

Our PlantBottle packaging is made by converting natural sugars found in plants into a key ingredient for making PET plastic. For those who want the technical specifics, we've innovated a way to develop plant-based MEG, a key component in PET plastic. PlantBottle is up to 30 percent plant-based because MEG is 30 percent of the total composition of PET plastic by weight. We still have more work to do to crack the code on a plant-based TA, which is the other 70 percent of PET plastic, but we know it is feasible.

_{Pepsi bottles - CC license by Clean Wal-Mart (Flickr)}

Surfboards Made From Ocean Trash, Including Plastic Bags, Bottles and Glass

by Alex Davies

Image: Spirare Surfboards

When surfer and founder of Spirare Surfboards Kevin Cunningham was distressed by the trash washing up on the beaches where he rides, he didn't just decide to do something about the debris, he decided to do something with the debris. So was born Spirare Sustainable Surf Craft- Cunningham's project to take back the ocean by making surfboards out of the debris that pollutes it.

Enjoying the water on boards made from the trash polluting it isn't just one of the cooler ways to recycle ocean garbage- it's also a great combination of product and market. Spending so much time in the water, surfers tend to be a pretty green bunch. Of the boards themselves, he writes:

It is a dichotomy between the natural and unnatural. Natural materials form my surfboards; conversely, fragments of man-made debris such as plastic and glass are recycled and reused in the skin of the surfboard. Plastic bags woven into a strengthening cloth, plastic bottles cut up and reassembled into fins, and many other possibilities to be explored.

Cunningham's idea is to first produce a limited series of boards made from reclaimed debris that will be featured in galleries around the country, to be followed by a line of 100 boards that will be sold as custom orders. But before any trash can become the eco-conscious surfer's dream board, Cunningham needs some financial support.

To that end, he has started a Kickstart campaign, looking for $3,500 by mid-April (he's about halfway there). And pledges come with rewards, from Spirare t-shirts, stickers and tote bags to a surfboard itself (for the grand $2,000 pledge). Check out his campaign video:



It's worth a thought, especially if you're aware of how bad ocean pollution has gotten. And while Cunningham is adamant about the quality of the boards he makes by hand, if it ever does break, you can always re-recycle the board into building materials. Cowabunga!

New invention can turn your plastic bags into fuel at home

by Katie Gatto
from http://www.physorg.com/

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plastic bags help you carry your groceries home, they make excellent liners for smaller-sized trash cans, and now they can help you to heat your home. A Japanese inventor has found a way to convert plastic grocery bags, bottles and caps into usable petroleum.

 

Plastic bags are, of course, made from petroleum to begin with, but it is not the same kind of petroleum that is used in fuel. In order to turn home waste into home power the machine heats up the waste plastic and traps the vapors created in a system of pipes and water chambers. Finally, the machine condenses the vapors into crude oil, that can be used for heating on the home level.


Enlarge

This is not the first device of this kind. A large power plant which is located just outside of Washington, D.C., is currently testing a similar process for use on the community level. This is simply the first device of this kind that is meant for use on a single-home scale. 

The machines conversion process can turn two pounds of plastic into one quart of oil, using only one kilowatt-hour of energy. The crude oil produced can then either be used in a power generator or be further refined into gasoline, though one would need a second machine to complete the refining process and create gasoline.


Enlarge

Many home users will be deterred by the initial cost, since the machine currently runs about $10,000. The developer hopes that the cost will be reduced as the demand for the device increases. The device is named the carbon-negative system and it is being sold by the Blest Corporation.

More information: http://www.blest.c … english.html

© 2010 PhysOrg.com

LA County Bans Plastic Bags

posted by: Beth Buczynski
from http://www.care2.com/

With a 3-1 vote in favor of the measure, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping ban on plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.

The ban will affect nearly 1.1 million residents countywide and has been called one of the nation's most aggressive environmental measures to date.

The official measure reads: "No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag." Plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items will be exempt from the ban.

Grocers that continue to offer plastic bags will be required to charge customers 10 cents per bag, according to the ordinance. The revenue will be retained by the stores to purchase the paper bags and educate customers about the law (LA Times).

In late August, heavy and costly lobbying by plastic bag manufacturers prevented the California state Senate from passing a state-wide plastic bag ban, despite the support of the state Assembly and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, the only official to vote against the ban, cautioned that small businesses could suffer financially because of the ban. Antonovich also worries that low-income people could be forced to begin buying bags to pick up pet waste or carry their lunch.

It's still possible for the measure to be legally challenged.

Similar plastic bag bans passed in San Francisco and Malibu are less strict because they don't involve a surcharge. Environmental advocates of banning plastic bags say these measures provide no incentive for consumers to switch to reusable cloth bags, the most eco-friendly option.

New York Canal Sludge Could Be Recycled into Glass Building Blocks

Trish Smith
by The Green Groove

from: http://greenopolis.com/

A process that transforms toxic sludge into glass building blocks could be used to clean New York’s Gowanus Canal.


Image: nytimes

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York has recently become a designated Superfund site for the E.P.A. What is a Superfund? It’s a federal government program whose goal is to clean up the most contaminated and hazardous waste sites in the nation. With over 300,000 cubic yards of sludge oozing from the Gowanus Canal, it would take the E.P.A. a decade to completely clean it. However, there is one option that could clean the canal and turn the nasty sludge into something useful: it’s called vitrification.

Simply put, vitrification is the process of turning a substance into glass. According to an article in Popular Mechanics, the E.P.A. is considering vitrification to turn the ooze from the canal into “washing machine-sized glass cubes.” Here’s how it would work:

• The sludge is collected and placed into metal molds.
• The molds are heated in temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any organic matter.
• A filter catches any harmful emissions.
• The heat causes any silica or sand in the ooze to bind with metals and create a transparent glass block.

These glass building blocks are completely safe and are resistant to corrosion. They become perfect building material to be used in construction and sculptures. Thus, the ultimate way to recycle sludge!


Image: thefamilystore

There is one drawback to the process of vitrification. It costs a pretty penny to turn sludge into glass, so the E.P.A. is conducting studies at various nuclear waste sites in the U.S. to see if it’s a good idea. If it deems too expensive, some other options for cleaning the Gowanus Canal are to ship the sludge to a landfill or to lay clay over the canal to encase the contaminants.

So what do you think? Glass cubes made from recycled sludge: good or bad idea?

Artist Melts 1,527 Guns to Make Shovels for Tree Planting!

by Brit Liggett
from http://inhabitat.com/

The city of Culiacán, in western Mexico has the highest rate of gun deaths in the country. After speaking with family members of victims of drug crimes in the city, artist Pedro Reyes decided to use its prolific amount of firearms to help the local botanical garden. In the ultimate act of recycling, Reyes and the garden started a campaign for residents to hand over their guns to the artist in exchange for a coupon that they could use to buy electronics or household appliances. He collected 1,527 guns for the project — Palas por Pistolas — had them melted down and transformed into 1,527 shovel heads that are now being used to plant trees in the community.

Reyes is an artist who focuses on the failures of modern culture in a positive way. He doesn’t believe in failures really, but that failure is the outcome of a certain perception. He takes things that people often see as broken and shows them in a new light. “If something is dying, becoming rotten and smelly, I think there is a chance to make a compost in which this vast catalog of solutions can be mixed in an entirely new way,” he told BOMB Magazine. In Palas por Pistolas he was aiming to show “how an agent of death can become an agent of life.”

Of the weapons that Reyes collected 40% of them were automatics of military caliber. After the collection the guns were taken to a military base and publicly smashed with a steamroller. They were then melted, recycled into shovels with wooden handles that tell the story of the project and distributed to art institutions and public schools where people in the community are planting — at least — 1,527 trees. In addition to the trees planted in the Cualiacán community these shovels have made their way to the Vancouver Art Gallery, the San Francisco Art Institute, Maison Rouge in Paris and other places around the world to plant Palas por Pistolas trees.

+ Pedro Reyes

Via GOOD Magazine

10 Great New Green Restaurants in the U.S.

by Jeff Kart, Bay City, Michigan

 
Photo via CUPS blog

The restaurant business can be an extremely wasteful one -- and those times when you don't have time to cook or just feel like someone else's cooking, can have a serious impact on your footprint. Luckily the foodies have options, with more and more sustainable restaurants springing up around the world. With this in mind, we've culled 10 great new restaurants in the U.S., with help from the extensive Green Restaurant Association database and reviews from both diners and other publications. Each restaurant -- offering a variety of cuisine -- has been in operation for less than a year.

Restaurants can accumulate points in seven categories to earn a green badge from the Green Restaurant Association:

• Chemical and Pollution Reduction
• Water Efficiency
• Waste Reduction and Recycling
• Sustainable Furnishings and Building Materials
• Sustainable Food
• Energy, and Disposables.

Based on the number of points earned, restaurants are designated as a 2-Star (at least 100 points) or a 3-Star (at least 175 points) Certified Green Restaurant.

1. CUPS 3-star (194.42 points)

Location: La Jolla, California

Cuisine: Organic Cupcakes/Lounge

Review from Yelp:

I opted for the chocolate milk and my bf got the maple w/bacon...wowza!! I'm telling you..we could've skipped breakfast and just had some of those! It tasted like pancakes w/bacon and syrup..mmmm.. The cupcakes were very moist and generous w/the topping as well.

Highlights:

At CUPS, 30% of main dishes are vegetarian. They source certified organic items, boast many vegan options, and feature recycled flooring, countertops, and decor. They also recycle cardboard, paper, plastics, glass, and aluminum, and staff dines on 100% reusables.

2. Frontera Grill & Topolobampo (3-star certified, 175.02)

 
Via rickbayless.com

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Cuisine: Mexican Fusion

Review from Frommers:

Owners Rick and Deann Bayless are widely credited with bringing authentic Mexican regional cuisine to a wider audience. Their restaurant is the place to taste real Mexican food, so don't show up expecting a plate of nachos with processed-cheese topping. The building actually houses two restaurants: the casual Frontera Grill (plain wood tables, terra-cotta tile floor) and the fine-dining Topolobampo (white linen tablecloths, a more hushed environment). At both restaurants, the focus is on fresh, organic ingredients supplied by local artisanal farmers.

Highlights:

Frontera features local and regionally-sourced certified organic foods and water is served only upon request. If every U.S. restaurant did this, the Green Restaurant Association tells us, we would save 26 million gallons of water per year.

The restaurant has a full-scale recycling program, composts pre-consumer and post-consumer waste and is conveniently located close to major public transportation outlets, helping reduce pollution. Plus, their vehicles use alternative fuels.

3. Adam's Sustainable Table (3-star certified, 253.29)

 
Via thesustainabletable.com

Location: Eugene, Oregon

Cuisine: Eclectic (they have a little bit of everything, from comfort food to Northwest specialties)

Review from Tripadvisor:

Adam's recently received the award as the first 3 Star Certified Green Restaurant in Oregon. This might lead you to think that the food is MERELY good for you, but Adam has maintained his reputation as a fine chef while sticking to his mission: sustainability and a zero carbon footprint. We go back regularly for the salads, the hormone free meat and fresh fish. Especially good last time was the "hand cut papardelle with braised lamb". We also love the bread, baked in the restaurant. Though the menu has changed from the original Adam's Place, the martinis have remained. And they are excellent.

Highlights:

At the Sustainable Table, to-go containers are made from 100% recycled (35% post-consumer recycled) content that's processed without chlorine; others are made from corn-based material. The restaurant's decor is made up of everything from refurbished chairs and tables to bamboo window treatments and lamps made from recycled cans.

4. Del Posto (3-star certified, 175.62)

 
Via facebook.com/DelPosto

Location: New York, New York

Cuisine: Italian

Review from The New York Times:

Del Posto, which means "of the place," has ample ethnic grounding in Italy's fancier restaurants. It also has something more important: mostly terrific food, distinguished by first-rate ingredients (the arugula here makes arugula at many other restaurants seem like iceberg in drag), clear flavors and, more often than not, superior cooking.

Highlights:

Del Posto sources sustainable seafood; uses low-flow sink aerators, which help conserve water; and installed compact fluorescent lamps and occupancy sensors in the restrooms and walk-in cooler. They also buy free-range and hormone-free meats.

A full-scale recycling and composting program includes grease recycling, and the interior features recycled materials including tables made from salvaged wood.

5. Uncommon Ground (3-star certified, 228.16)

 
Via cityfarmer.info

Location: Chicago

Cuisine: American Comfort Food

Review from Frommers:

When you're looking for refuge from Cubs game days and party nights in Wrigleyville, Uncommon Ground offers a dose of laid-back, vaguely bohemian civility. Just off busy Clark Street, the cafe has a fireplace in winter (when the cafe's bowl -- yes, bowl -- of hot chocolate is a sight for cold eyes) and a spacious sidewalk operation in more temperate months.

Highlights:

Uncommon Ground serves local food, and uses reclaimed wood in its decor and furniture. The uniforms are even made from organic cotton, and there's a full-scale recycling and composting program.

6. Comb Ridge Coffee (3-star certified, 208.5)

 
Via combridgecoffee.com

Location: Bluff, Utah


Cuisine: Coffee Shop

Review from Tripadvisor:

In a land where people get confused when you try to explain what being vegetarian means, Comb Ridge Coffee is a king among restaurants. My soy chai latte was so awesome, I went back for another and the food is excellent. Great atmosphere; my fiancee and I sat on comfy sofas and read magazines for awhile before continuing our journey. I'm so glad this place exists!

Highlights:

Comb Ridge serves only organic food and fair-trade coffee. In addition, kitchen equipment is energy efficient; glassware and dishes are reusable; and the restaurant runs a full-scale recycling and compost program.

7. Michael & Ping's Modern Chinese Take-Out (2-star certified, 134.5)

 
Via facebook.com/michaelandpings

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Cuisine: Chinese Fusion

Review from Metromix New York:

You'll find standards like beef and broccoli, kung pao chicken and steamed pork dumplings, but unorthodox (and un-Chinese) additions like banh mi and pad thai announce that this isn't your typical old-school delivery joint.

Highlights:

Michael & Ping's offers vegan and vegetarian food options and has installed energy efficient dish and ice machines, hand dryers, and occupancy sensors.

8. Muir Woods Trading Co. ( 3-star certified, 175.28)

 
Via muirwoodstradingcompany.com

Location: Mill Valley, California

Cuisine: Healthy American

Review from Yelp:

All the ingredients were locally made and you can taste the goodness. I had the Tyler recommended special of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Bread - it's like a 9 grain. Cheese - mix was 2-3 different cheeses - white cheese, which is yum not sure which type, but it's tasty. Tomato soup is light and not too heavy. Totally recommend it.

Highlights:

Muir Woods purchases local food, sourced from less than 100 miles away; certified organic food; sustainably sourced seafood; hormone-free meat; and 30% of their main dishes are vegetarian. They also have salvaged booths and tables, and recycled countertops.

9. Seaglass Restaurant & Lounge (2-star certified, 131.1)

 
Credit: Akuppa

Location: Salisbury, Massachusetts

Cuisine: American Seafood

User review from Zagat:

Went for drinks & ap on a week night (wed) and as everyone confirms the view is awesome, esp if you can sit by the window. Had the signature martini with the blue curacao which was delicious, my wife got a margarita, I think it was yummy. We split the ahi tuna ap, which was perfect. We were so impressed with the view we reserved a window table for a saturday night for her b-day. Hope the dinner is as good as the ap and the view.

Highlights:

Seaglass features locally sourced food from less than 100 miles away and recycles cardboard, plastics, glass, and aluminum. The business vehicles are fueled by waste vegetable oil, and paper products are recycled. And can you go wrong with a view that has been called breath-taking?

10. Sopraffina Marketcaffè (2-star certified, 124.7)

Via trattoriaten.com

Location: Chicago

Cuisine: Italian

Review from Centerstage Chicago:

The menu at the cafe includes thin crust pizzas, pizza-stuffed peppers, an extensive selection of salads (such as the Hilltop with candied walnuts, fresh pears, dried cranberries and gorgnozola), gourmet sandwiches with roast beef, tuna and turkey served on the signature flatbread, lasagna and homemade soup.

Highlights:

With several locations in the Windy City, Sopraffina offers several vegan and vegetarian purchases; 30% of their main dishes are vegetarian. There's also a reusable mug program and all deliveries are made by foot or bicycle.

New Wine In Old Bottles: The Greenest Way To Drink

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Images via Inhabitat

Whenever there is a discussion about wine packaging, TreeHugger comes down on the side of local and refillable. We return often to TreeHugger Emeritus Ruben Anderson's article in the Tyee: New Wine in Old Bottles, where he notes that in France, wine bottles are refilled an average of eight times. Now they even have computerized wine dispensers where you can fill your own jugs with vin de table for about two bucks a litre.

It is much like filling up your car at the self-service gas station, and at 1.45 euros per litre, it is about the same price. (gas in France is 1.41 euros per litre). It isn't a new idea; Dr. Vino writes:

Astrid Terzian introduced this concept that hearkens back to a bygone era when wine would arrive in Paris shops in tonneaux and consumers would bring their own flagons to fill. But today, Terzian says, she started this scheme in fall 2008 to fill a niche, tapping into two key themes, environmental awareness and the economy.

Dr. Vino also suggests that the system is coming to the States within the year. But every time we have this discussion, people note that in the litigious USA, somebody will get sick and sue. There are people trying to do refillable bottles in America; Pend d'Oreille Winery sells wine in a refillable 1.5 litre jug. Wines and Vines writes:

The economic benefits have sweetened the environmental proposition that initially inspired the program. Since a local market for glass recyclables doesn't exist in Sandpoint, bottles were typically reintegrated with solid waste and sent to an Oregon landfill. Pend d'Oreille's program helps reduce that waste stream.

In British Columbia a lot of wineries are looking at refillable bottles.

Preliminary economic models developed by Dr. Ian Stuart of the Faculty of Management at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in Kelowna pegged the per-bottle savings of the program at 46 cents (Canadian) per bottle (based on an annual flow of 840,000 bottles through the system). Smaller wineries typically pay between 85 cents to $1.20 Canadian (CA$1 = US$0.94) per new bottle.

In Michigan, you can bring your own bottles to Left Foot Charleys.

It's cheaper and better for the environment, obviously the greenest alternative. But what do we get peddled as green?

Boxes aren't Green

We noted earlier Ruben's wonderful article, where he questioned the green-ness of boxed wine, writing

While looking for wine in refilled bottles I had the misfortune to see one of those shrill displays of wine in Tetra Paks; this crap is being flogged as a "Green Solution." It's junk like this that drives me to the liquor store in the first place. Tetra Paks are here to save us because they weigh less, so less climate-changing diesel fuel is required to lug them across the ocean from Australia. Dear God, where to start?

He does go on, read the rest in Which Is Greener, Wine Bottle or Box? Neither.

TreeHugger Jenna, who does life cycle analyses for her day job, had a close look at boxed wine and concluded that it did have a lower carbon footprint than bottled.

Overall, the study concludes that the paperboard systems have the lowest total energy as well as the lowest greenhouse gas emissions; the glass systems have the highest total energy as well as the highest greenhouse gas emissions.

More in Hitting the Bottle or Hitting the Box? The Debate Continues

But as was noted in a post on the recycling of Tetra Pak,

Green is reusable. Green is refillable. Green is not disposable and downcylable, for the lucky 20% of Americans who have access to it, and landfill for the 80% who don't. Tetra Pak is the most elaborate greenwashing scheme ever, and they are doing a very good job of it.

(although I must point out that Pablo disagrees with me in his Defense of Tetrapak)

Others are trying to reduce their impact by putting wine in pouches, which are then put in a cardboard box. It is popular in Europe but has only six percent of the market in the USA, as everyone evidently thinks it is only for plonk suitable for rubbies. Alan Dufrêne, a wine consultant, blames the industry. "Don't put low quality wine in bag-in-box packaging," Dufrêne told wine makers. "It will only reduce its appeal." More in Which Is Greener, Wine Bottle or Box? Depends on the Box

PET Bottles were developed for the British market, so that yobs wouldn't kill each other at football games. Their claim is that they are lighter and smaller, taking less energy to ship. The bottles " are 88 percent lighter than glass bottles, and use less energy to manufacture than glass bottles. The lightweight plastic bottles also reduce distribution emissions." John isn't convinced and writes Marks & Spencer Delivers Wine in Plastic Bottles, but Is It Greener?

April wrote about Yealands Estate wine, packed in PET, noting that "its Full Circle sauvignon blanc bottles are 89% lighter than 750ml glass bottles, which means they generate 54% less greenhouse gas emissions and use nearly 20% less energy to produce than glass. " Ways to Wine: From Bottle to Box, Back to Bottle

April is also fond of wine in pouches, noting that they are a twentieth of the weight of glass, and quotes a study:

Even if 100% of wine bottles were recycled and 0% of wine pouches were recycled (because by the way, the mixed-material pouches are NOT currently recyclable) pouches would still have less environmental impact and contribute less waste.

It is a difficult issue. As Matt calculated in his post Ship or Truck Transport Makes All the Difference in Wine's Carbon Footprint , it doesn't really take a lot of energy to move wine by ship around the world. In fact, driving to the wine store probably has a bigger footprint than shipping the bottle from New Zealand. But it still takes a lot of energy to make a bottle or a box, energy that would be saved if we could refill our own jugs and bottles right from the tank. But notwithstanding Dr. Vino's optimism, I don't expect to see it any time soon.

Rubber Made from Chewed Gum Could Replace Plastic

From: http://www.treehugger.com/

by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California

Image via The Gumdrop Bin

It's not news that chewing gum is the scourge of city sidewalks. Nor that it takes a lot of money and energy to clear gum off walkways, shortening the lifespan of the surfaces at the same time. Designer Anna Bullus read the statistics of the gum problem in London -- that the government spends £150 million annually to clean up gum, over 30,000 pieces of which end up stuck to Oxford street alone each day -- and she decided there must be a better way to deal with the problem. So, she headed to the laboratory and came up with a way to transform chewed gum into a useful rubber that can be made into anything from toys to boots. But she's starting out by making chewed gum into discrete but identifiable waste bins for used gum.

The Gumdrop Bin by Anna Bullus is potentially a perfect solution to the problem of chewed gum. She cites that over 3.5 billion pieces of gum are discarded every year, too many of which end up on sidewalks, but by posting small repositories like the Gumdrop, they can be collected and transformed into something new.

The Guardian writes that Bullus "spent eight months working in a lab, trying to turn old gum into a new material...From getting it to make a foam, Bullus was able to make a used-gum pellet; then, adding ingredients (these remain secret), she extracted a polymer that she calls BRGP (Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer). This is the substance she uses to make the pink bubble bins now dotted around Orpington College, where they're being trialled as gum-specific litter bins. When the bins are full, both bin and innards are recycled into new BRGP, which in turn become more bins and possibly other products, too."

There are a few inherent problems, such as keeping the Gumdrop bins empty of anything except gum, when and who collects the gum from the bins, and getting people to use them instead of spitting out their gum wherever they feel like. Getting people to notice, and understand what the pink orbs are for is a big part of the challenge. But if it becomes a useful service, then it could save cities millions in clean up efforts, and save citizens hours of cleaning shoes.

Speaking of shoes, that's exactly what Bullus hopes to make out of chewed-gum-turned-rubber: "The amazing thing is you can use it for any plastic product," says Bullus. "I'd love to do some Wellington boots, for example. Gum boots, in fact."

Chewed gum as a substitute for plastics, at least on a small scale? We'll take it.

So far the repositories are popping up around London and even in a Six Flags in New Jersey. We'll watch and see if, and how, the idea takes off.

Incredible Miniature Sculptures Carved From Pencil Tips

by Rebecca Paul

Here at Inhabitat we are often impressed by innovative new applications for everyday materials, but artist Dalton Ghetti's tiny sculptures carved out of the fragile tips of pencils have truly knocked our socks off! From a miniature bust of Elvis Presley wearing shades to tiny hammers and old boots, his work is mind boggling. Check it out in our gallery below, and get ready to be amazed by this unbelievable artwork!

Ghetti, who is originally from Brazil, uses his little lead canvases to explore all types of subjects. The image above depicts a part of his 26 pencil letter series – one pencil tip for each letter of the alphabet.

Getting familiar with Dalton’s technique makes the work even more interesting, as he refuses to work with a magnifying glass, and only uses three tools – a razor blade, sewing needle and sculpting knife. He explains his process: “I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite. I scratch and create lines and turn the graphite around slowly in my hand”

Read more: Amazing Miniature Sculptures Carved From Pencil Tips | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World