A robotic vacuum cleaner called ‘Limbo‘ was created by industrial designer Elliot Cohen as a concept project for the 25th anniversary of Casabella. Unveiled at the 2013 International Housewares Show in Chicago, it was designed “to inspire and push the limits of design and engineering for the future.”
Notably: “The robotic floor cleaner powers itself through the bacteria it consumes.”
(via Dirt-Powered Robotic Vacuum Recharges While It Cleans - PSFK)
![Recyclable solar cells have been created using material from trees [by] a research team from Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University. The researchers utilized natural substrates from trees to create organic solar cells. They also created these organic solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal or CNC substrates, which make it possible for the cells to be recycled in water at room temperature. When the solar cell is immersed in water, the CNC substrates dissolve easily and makes it easy for the solar cells to be separated into its main components.
(via Recyclable Solar Cells Made From Trees - PSFK)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/5720dc466937924acb6c54e63a431374/tumblr_mkph6xzoBc1qzv12bo1_400.jpg)
Recyclable solar cells have been created using material from trees [by] a research team from Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University. The researchers utilized natural substrates from trees to create organic solar cells. They also created these organic solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal or CNC substrates, which make it possible for the cells to be recycled in water at room temperature. When the solar cell is immersed in water, the CNC substrates dissolve easily and makes it easy for the solar cells to be separated into its main components.
This spring, Poltrona Frau is pleased to partner with Parsons The New School for Design on a Product Design Studio with a focus on responsible design. With the guidance of instructor Andrea Ruggiero, students will design and develop new objects using leather scraps at Poltrona Frau’s factory in Tolentino, Italy. For the first time, the brief is to design everyday leather goods for the home and office, elevating waste material into a premium product.
(via Parsons The New School for Design x Poltrona Frau: Designing for Wastelessness - Core77)
When ocean scientist Andrew Thaler found an old, outdated water level gauge, he found a way to give it new life — turning it into a tool to measure public interest in sea level rise. Instead of tracking water, the Sea Leveler tracks how much people are talking about water on Twitter.
(via Project: Recycle old scientific equipment into new tools for public engagement - Boing Boing)
“I am inspired by vintage or used objects: records, books, furniture, anything that has a history.” —Mike Stilkey
Artist Mike Stilkey, whose amazing artwork was featured in an exhibition here in Houston five or so years ago, turns everyday objects into eye-catching sculptures.
If you’ll be in the San Francisco area this month, you can catch several of Mike’s pieces, along with those of two other artists who work with books — Cara Barer (mentioned previously here) and Melinda Tidwell — at the Andrea Schwartz Gallery through April 26.
Two Swedish designers are turning rejected and recycled materials into beautiful, colorful rugs.
Katarina Brieditis and Katarina Evans of Stockholm have been repurposing old Salvation Army swag into stunning floor-coverings since August 2012, with the aim of producing one new piece on a monthly basis. They employ several methods to create their final products, from the more traditional knitting and sewing to more specific crocheting and plaiting.
(via Design Duo Turn Thrift Store Sweaters Into Rugs - PSFK)
19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel. The angle of the booms would force plastic in the direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from plankton, filtered and stored for recycling.
Via BoingBoing
Also on the ocean-garbage front: We’ve covered various responses to the Pacific Garbage Patch, here, and here.
With a Department of Energy grant, Raleigh, N.C. has been using about 40 so-called Big Belly cans: “Large, solar-powered” public trash bins that “automatically compact trash and recyclables, and … send workers an email when they’re full.”
The cans cost about $7,000 each, said Bianca Howard, a community education specialist with the city’s Solid Waste Services department. But they ultimately save taxpayers money because they need to be collected less often, she said.
During the pilot program, the city replaced 32 traditional open-top cans along Fayetteville Street with 10 Big Belly stations and reduced costs from $40,903 to $1,607 for the year. In the Glenwood South area, collection costs were decreased from $12,056 annually to $115.
Via: High-tech trash cans cut costs in downtown Raleigh :: WRAL.com
Trying to figure out what to do with old jeans normally ends in one conclusion – throw them away. This results in a lot of wasted material, which is exactly why Nudie Jeans has decided to start doing things differently. They are taking worn-out jeans and turning them into rugs.
The idea of a rug made out of other people’s jeans could be off putting for some, but the denim is cleaned and processed beforehand. More importantly the rugs look pretty cool and are a much better use of the old material than taking up space in a landfill.
(via Luxury Denim Brand Turns Old Jeans Into New Rugs - PSFK - PSFK)
Some past denim-reuse efforts from the Unconsumption archives, here.
An Australian design firm worked with a publisher to start redesigning book covers: now, the dust jacket of some new novels in Australia can be flipped around, bent around the book, and sealed to be sent to a nonprofit that gives books to the homeless. The design is flexible, so it can easily be adapted for different book sizes and edited to include a different nonprofit’s address in the region where the books are sold.
More, including a video, here: A Dust Jacket That Transforms into a Shipping Box to Donate Used Books | Australia on GOOD
At the American Academy in Rome, filmmaker Nicholas Heller follows Visiting Artist Ann Weber on her daily rounds, scavenging cardboard boxes out of dumpsters, collecting ideas from architectural details and Bernini sculptures and creating sculpture in her studio.
