Nowadays, a lot of people are getting more and more conscious about the sustainability of their environment. It’s not only about reduce-reuse-recycling stuffs--that’s a good thing, though--but also about finding another solution, one of them is inventing some new sustainable products. Check some of them below and be inspired!
Leaf Tableware
(Via : leaf-republic.com)
Many tribes or nations in the world are already used to use leaves as their ‘plate’, but still for some occasion using leaves as your plate might considered impractical or unproper. That’s why, for the same disposable function, people tend to use styrofoam plates than the leafy ones. It might also caused by the appearance of the ‘leaf-plate’ itself--which doesn’t look like a ‘real’ plate--that make people tend to choose the less-environmental-friendly styrofoam plate. But what if there’s a plate that ‘looks like a plate’ but actually made from 100% leaves?
(Via : leaf-republic.com)
Well, we don’t have to wonder anymore. A German company called Leaf Republic have been developing a line of sustainable tableware made out of leaves. So far their leafy tableware already consist of plates and bowls, and they plan to develop it into wider range of tableware. Their products are waterproof (a quality that also possessed by the styrofoam), and completely renewable and biodegradable. The leaves they used as the main material of the tableware are stitched together with fibres from palm leaves and took only 28 days to decompost. They don’t use glue, colorings, even there’s no trees been cut down. These folks in Leaf Republic thinks that as the consumption rate skyrocketed, the number of wasted packagings are also massively increase, thus it means it’s time to revolutionize the way we package our stuffs. Imagine a festival where there’s no booths using styrofoam plates to serve their customers--no more ‘guilty pleasure’, there will only be ‘pleasure’.
Bike Washing Machine
(Via : ecosnippets.com)
So you often tell your friend that the reason why you ‘have no time for exercising’ is because yo have ‘so many domestic chores’ to do? Maybe it’s about time for you to find any other reason, ‘cause today we got a sport equipment that can double as home appliances, too.
Students in Dalian Nationalities University in China have designed a Bike Washing Machine (a.k.a. BiWa), a combination of a stationary bike and a washing machine. So the front ‘wheel’ of the bike is actually a clothing drum, which spun and rotated by the help of every stroke of the pedal you make. The energy created from your carbs-burning activity also used to power a display screen that keeps the ‘cyclist’ aware of the wash cycle’s progress. And whenever you have excess energy to burn off, you can just ‘go cycling’ on this bike and your excess energy can be stored for the future use.
Eventhough today this bike is still not on sale yet, but this one is worth the wait since this bike could make things go more efficient--on your budget, it may reduce your laundromat expense; on your time, there will be less time spent cycling to and fro your destination. The small capacity also mean that you will need to take multiple spin cycles to finally done with all your laundry, but if you would like to find the silver linings, it means there’s more reason to get some exercise, isn’t it? ;)
Pencil Printer
(Via : spicytec.com)
We all are familiar with the sounds of screaming human caused by empty cartridge in the edge of the deadline frenzy *lol. Now, besides all that pages that should be signed by your boss or those pages which perceived as ‘important letters’, let’s be honest to ourselves, whether the letters that we print really important it should not be erasable? Often times, things that we print is only a dummy. We may think that ‘ah, just one paper’, but remember that if accumulated the number will appear abundant--it means, a lot of wasted ink and papers. That’s where designer Lee Hoyoung find a gap that should be filled, there should be a printer which prints could be erased--a pencil printer.
With Lee’s printer you’ll need no ink cartridge and you can use that pencil stub instead of throwing them away. The printer will separate the wood from the pencils then use the lead to print the document. There’s even a built-in eraser component that enables you to remove texts from a page and reuse the paper. Less paper used, check. Save more trees, check!
It is difficult to fully replace the ink-cartridge printer with this pencil printer, because undeniably we’ll still need one for those necessary moments. But at least, now you can save your ink-based printer for that VVIP letters only! Talking about saving some for your piggybanks...
Raindrops in a Plastic Bottle
(Via : designbuzz.com)
For some areas, rain water can be very helpful if it can be stored and reused after that. Aware of this needs, Evan Gant (a designer from US) designed a system which reuse 2-litres disposable plastic bottle to store rainwater, by adapting it to the existing gutter system. The result are some individual-sized amount of captured water that can be used for watering your plants, washing your bike, or maybe drink it after filtrating it first.
(Via : designbuzz.com)
Even this water-storage system still have some flaws here and there (such as the limited amount of water that can be stored at this system, how to get the caps that should be attached to the gutter, etc.), but it’s such an innovative way of collecting rainwater for further use instead of ‘just’ use it to ‘water’ your whole garden. It also help in recycling and reusing plastic bottles, so there will be less synthetic waste polluting our Mother Earth.
Edible Glass
(Via : wiresmash.com)
If Leaf Republic’s tableware is a legit zero-waste because of its easily-composted qualities, this glass is zero-waste because of this yummy, finger-lickin’ quality--it’s edible! Created by a small design studio named The Way We See The World, the Loliware was first created when The Way We See The World entered the Jell-O Mold competition. They have this concept of edible cups that could be eaten once they finish the drink, and now the rest is history. Loliware already become a standalone company, and to accompany their cups now they’ve been developing their new edible products that include edible straws and edible bottles. What makes this seaweed-based cups even cooler is, it also gluten-free and gelatin-free. Vegan, please welcome!
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Written by Nadia Maya Ardiani