VIDEO: National Geographic: The Scrap House

National Geographic: The Scrap House

Filter Waste Oil With Old Denim

Source: GreenMachine 02

[Video] Beijing discards recyclers

Beijing recyclers find themselves discarded in Olympic Games security sweep. They are being pushed out of town as China's capital gears up to present a sanitized modern city to millions of Olympic visitors. Authorities say a recent survey shows that more than 70 percent of the recycling collect...

[Video] Zero waste in Japan

Rubbish collectors never visit Kamikatsu in eastern Japan, where all the waste is composted or recycled.

[Video] Living Green: More Items Could Be Recycled

[Video] Living Green: More Items Could Be Recycled
(Denver) Curbside recycling is a great way to recycle plastics, glass, aluminum, paper and steel, Jennifer Zeppelin reports.

[Video] Home Sweet Recycled Home

[Video] Home Sweet Recycled Home
The newest innovation in the "green revolution" is recycled homes. Mark Phillips talks to the resident of a home that has been built entirely out of shipping containers.

[Video] Houses built on bottles

[Video] Houses built on bottles
Many parts of Bolivia lack sanitary services to deal with disposable products like plastic bottles and bags and the homes from recycled materials keep non-biodegradable products from ending up in rivers or strewn across fields.

Furoshiki Revisited

This is an older post but worthy of another presentation with the impending holidays lurking ahead of us.
Makezine directs us to a guide on Furoshiki, or cloth gift wrapping.
The Ministry of the Environment Government of Japan is has suggested that citizens use cloth gift wrapping techniques as opposed to paper, to limit paper usage and waste. Sounds like a cool idea for wrapping, and could potentially be used to fashion a quilt. Cool indeed.

Future Shack

Here's another good use for a shipping container. This focuses more on the disaster relief aspect, but I think it would be cool to design a community of them. Also, I'd be interested in putting solar panels on the parasols. I'm not sure if they did that already. If so, they could always use a little more solar power.

- The Future Shack

Innovative architects turn used shipping containers into homes

Lately I've been interested in using shipping containers as studio/office space, or even housing. Looks like people are way ahead of me. I found this great article on SF Gate about some of the more innovative approaches to using shipping containers in architecture.

Green your home

Being earth-friendly doesn't require going solar or growing all your own food. There are plenty of easy ways to make a big difference.

The MSN real estate section includes ideas such as new energy efficient appliances, temp, water consumption, environmentally friendly cleaners etc. to make your home "Green".

Paddle boat made of recycled materials

Spluch writes -

Li Zhiyuan assembles a paddle boat made of recycled materials on the river at a park in Hefei, east China's Anhui province, April 23, 2007. Li, the designer of the paddle boat, spent one and half months making the boat using trashed wood, bottles, cans and bicycles which cost him less than 100 yuan (USD 12), local media reported.

Thanks to philliptorrone @ MAKE.

Cardboard Furniture

I came across this and it reminded me of the "blow up furniture" fad that thankfully lasted like 5 minutes. The catch here is cardboard furniture helps the environment, unlike pool rafts. I believe the only construction patterns
available for download are for kids furniture. If anything this is a good spot to inspire some ideas of your own.