I love that this white-wine decanter has an ice chamber designed to keep the wine cool without letting melted ice dilute the wine at all. From the looks of it, the melted water won’t spill out when you pour the wine, either, so long as you’re reasonably careful.
Plus, it’s made from recycled windshields, which is why it has that green tint.
It’s $50 on Uncommon Goods, which is a little pricey, but not really that far-out. Unfortunately, it is currently sold out. Must be popular!
Kathleen Meaney teaches at the College of Design, North Carolina State University. One day, she found out that, despite the arrow triangle symbol on the bottom of her yogurt container, it wasn’t able to be recycled:
In 1988, the Society of the Plastics Industry developed a resin identification code — a numbering system from 1 to 7 — categorizing different types of plastic. The code is centered in a triangle made of arrows chasing each other. This mark is commonly misidentified as the recycling symbol. Though the system was instituted to “facilitate the recycling of post-consumer plastics,” the chasing arrows graphic is meaningless. Plastic imprinted with the arrow symbol doesn’t indicate that the material is made from recycled content nor that the plastic can be recycled, misleading many.
Did it surprise me that the “recycling symbol” at the bottom of my yogurt container had nothing to do with its recyclability? Yes. (As it turns out, my city doesn’t take #5s.)
So, what does a professor do? Well, she turned it into a class.
The result is a number of thoughtful ways that a grocery store could encourage people to be more recycling aware — from the door, to the shelves, to the cashier and even the receipt.
It’s a great post — check out these stickers for a freezer compartment, designed by student Caitlin Garrison:
Says Meaney: “Some freezer containers can be recycled. These charming “buy me” door decals help identify them.”
Another concept I liked was this postcard mailer, encouraging better meat packaging. Of course, I’m not sure about the eco-friendliness of mailing out thousands of pieces of glossy paper to promote your cause, but I suppose it could be worse — the message, designed by David Mitchell, is very clever:
And, as Meaney points out, “This postcard campaign puts pressure on the manufacturer without boycotting the product. You like their product, not their packaging.”
One thing she says is that a “polluter-pays” mentality seems to have the biggest effect. It’s what she says they use in Germany, where the manufacturer is responsible for the entire lifecycle of a product — including its final disposal. That means there is a ton less packaging produced in the first place — “Toothpaste doesn’t come in a box,” she writes. “A bottle is reused 25 times before being recycled.”
Great design work from her class. I’d love to see some of them show up at my local stores (not holding my breath, though).
Emeco has contracted with Coca-Cola to produce a recycled plastic version of their iconic “Navy” chair, originally designed for use on World War II submarines and ships. In fact, a word about the original, aluminum Navy chair:
The chair was commissioned in the 1940s by the U.S. Navy in World War II for use on warships: the contract specified that it had to be able to withstand torpedo blasts to the side of a destroyer. Together with Alcoa experts, Emeco’s founder, Witton C. “Bud” Dinges designed the 1006, a chair so durable that it far exceeded the Navy’s specifications: When Dinges threw one chair out of a sixth-floor window at a Chicago furniture show, it survived undamaged except for a few scratches. Most wartime chairs are still in perfect condition and are occasionally available on the U.S. civilian market as military surplus from mothballed Navy ships.
That’s some chair. To this day, it takes two weeks and 77 individual steps to make each one by hand. They list at between $415 and $1,120, if you’re interested.
So that makes the Coke version a downright bargain, at just $230. Here’s a list of dealers.
According to Emeco, it takes 111 recycled Coke bottles to make each chair, and it takes three minutes to put it through the mould. Although that’s Speedy Gonzales compared to the aluminum version, it’s apparently three times longer than your average patio chair.
They’ve even got a (strangely dull) video showing the tail end of the process:
When did it become boring to watch a robot make life-size chairs with plastic tabs that look like the ones I used to bend off of model car kits?
I drink coffee — I drink a lot of coffee. Most of it I drink from ceramic mugs, to which I have an unhealthy addiction (attention readers: I would love to collect coffee mugs from your hometown newspaper).
Sometimes, I take my coffee in an insulated, stainless steel travel mug. I also have a combination travel mug and coffee press which I absolutely love and which is, to be honest, pretty sweet.
But sometimes I get a coffee from a coffeeshop. And, inevitably, they serve it to me in a paper cup, with a cardboard sleeve.
Many coffeeshops tout the fact that their cups are made from recycled paper and cardboard. The better coffeeshops even mention the amount of “post-consumer” recycling there is.
Unfortunately, once they’ve been used as a coffee cup, that paper is at the end of its run. There’s no more recycling.
The people at Betacup want to change that. They’re offering $20,000 in prizes to people who can design a better coffee cup. The best idea gets $10,000, and another five will divide an additional $10,000.
Perhaps someone will come up with a paper cup that can actually be recycled. Or, perhaps a reusable coffee cup that people will actually tote with them and use.
Check out the promo video:
Betacup from the betacup on Vimeo.
Then, go to the website and poke around.
I’m not sure that I have an idea just off the top of my head. But I’m sure thinking about it.
