If you want to start first thing in the morning with small eco steps …

Tokyo based Japanese company Fine has come up with two simple yet incredibly functional and green toothbrushes: Baby toothbrush – Posy ring-shaped toothbrush and Bamboo toothbrush – FINE eco 41.

Posy toothbrush

Designers: @ FINE

(Have you already started suffering from “why I didn’t think this before” syndrome like me!)

This ring – round shape of baby toothbrush has amazing functionality:

Toddlers are already familiar with this shape.

Children get used to brushing their own teeth (and that too happily!)

Has a safe design with a short neck and a ring-shaped grip.

Round shape prevents the head from reaching child’s throat.

The handle is too big to go into the mouth of a child, up to three years of age.

But is designed so that the back teeth can still be brushed.

Ring-shape of the toothbrush has an external diameter of 6.4 centimeters and the neck region is only 2.6 centimeters long.

Materials used are Polypropylene handle and Nylon bristle

Suitable for children aged 1 to 3 years.

Designers: @ Fine Company Ltd

You may even be using a bamboo toothbrush holder but have you heard of a bamboo toothbrush?

Fine Company Ltd. has showcased this bamboo tooth brush at Eco-Products 2008 Exhibition in Tokyo.

Made of bamboo and plant origin resin this toothbrush has increased durability, heat resistance but decomposes with zero carbon footprints.

The natural resin is made from bamboo fibers developed in Shizouka Prefecture.

 In 2000 Fine Company Ltd has also introduced Epoch: 21 – an environment friendly toothbrush made of lactic acid-based biodegradable resin.

(images and info courtesy : Fine )

Designer: @ DUMDUM

lamps made of mineral bottles

This post is salutation to those designers who create stunning designs out of day today waste and other small little things to inspire me!

What is day today life made of?

A lot of waste occupy space in everyday life in form of plastic and omg! – newspapers (I am always accused of keeping newspapers till ’the newspaper pillar’ touches the roof!!); so I am happy to discover these designers.

And a little greenery and small buttons also cheer me up!

 handmade handbag @ Nahui Ollin

Nahui Ollin is a collection of unique and fashionable handbags and accessories made from recycled materials – by specially folding and weaving candy wrappers, gum wrappers and soda bottle labels–together to create the various beautiful shapes and sizes

ALL materials are factory rejects from independent manufactures and have never been used. These same materials were certain to be sent to a land fill or garbage dump only to pollute the earth more!

Architect-Designer: Charles kaisin

chair made of newspaper

Designer: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec @ Teracrea

Treille is a system of cylindrical vases, horizontally aligned and connected by nylon belts and height-adjustable painted stainless steel tutors. A stair set can be created, made of three containers, to hang from the ceiling or from a wall.

Can be kept inside as well as outside.

Button tray & bowl @ greener grass design

 When sewn and knotted together these simple buttons make interesting design!

oslo – penholder

Designer: Harri Koskinen For Danese Milano

Most of the times simple things are most functional and beautiful.. A simple creation and lot of  thinking (sustainable too) is the beauty of this memo and pencil holder.

Designer Harri Koskinen has taken only two birchwood rings and a sheet to create this.

I would take lots of pencils & things to decorate this!

Tell me what is so earthy about handmade paper! May be I am only person in the world who has covered few old books in handmade paper! My fascination with handmade paper has taken me to Finland’s paper artist Sirpa Kivilompolo. She has done very interesting experiments of capturing light on paper with watermark pattern technique.

On white handmade paper play of light and shadow creates an elegant and eye-catching illusion. Each of her cards series tells a story. Here are her kuulto- watermark paper cards sold under the name Paperivalo.

                wheel of fortune series               dancing sea

              singing sun & summer waltz      heaven’s gate         

memorable day & blessedness      joy of life & sound of silence

How these cards are made you can see here but explanation is in Finnish.

edit:grafikerlik has sent me these great info links about watermark techniques:

http://www.conqueror.com/office_site/all-about-paper/how-to-watermark/index.asp?market=row_bc

http://www.watermarks.info/linksi.htm

0 pollution

0 water effluence

0 solid waste and

0 gas emission

Claims Mumbai based Ecolinkindia (Deluxe Recycling-India-pvt ltd).

Out of recyclable tetra packages they make ecoboards and Products.

All products are self recyclable.

So it comes to a full circle. ( 0+0+0+0= o)

Take a piece of paper, take carbon nano tubes and some electrolyte solution. Lo! And behold energy is produced!

Paper battery is made from plant cellulose which is used in making paper. So it is environment friendly. It has carbon nano tubes. And it produces energy.

It is a paper thin, can be bent battery prototype. It is small, light-weight and has endless design as well as application possibilities. The prototype has been made using inexpensive materials.

Each gram of paper produces about 10 milliamps of current at 2 volts, which can power a fan and LED light.

It is not only a battery but a capacitor too.

It looks, feels and weighs like a paper. It can be twisted, trimmed with scissors. Like paper you can stack one sheet on top of another to increase the power output. Researchers have experimented with 10 sheets. It can be given any shape even of a car door.

Potential uses of this battery would be in medical equipments like pacemakers and insulin pumps; in combination with solar cells. It is also going to change how we charge our cell phones, digital camera and laptops. It would be useful in aircrafts, boats and automobiles where power source gets bulky.

A team of scientists headed by chemist Robert Linhardt, materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, and engineer Omkaram Nalamasu of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York has developed this wonder nano battery.

Interestingly scientists believe that they would be able to mass produce it like newspaper on rolls of paper.

How paper battery is made?

To make the new battery, the researchers substituted carbon nano tubes for the electrodes used in a conventional battery. They dissolved cellulose, a plant material used to make paper, in a liquid salt solution. Then they added carbon nano tubes and let the mixture dry. Those steps yielded a thin film that resembled a piece of paper, which was white on one side and black with nano tubes on the other. To complete the battery, the team soaked the cellulose with a  lithium hexafluorophosphate solution and covered the white side of the film with lithium metal. The carbon nano tubes served as one electrode and the lithium metal the other. The solution privided the electrolyte, and the cellulose worked as the separator.

It is a single integrated device. The battery has other advantages. It works in temperatures as high as 150 degree C and as -70 degree C, it retains the flexibility of paper, and, because it’s made from 90% cellulose, it’s cheap to manufacture. Its low toxicity also makes it an attractive power source.

The researchers reported this invention in a paper in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Seemingly there is no correlation among these images and objects. But there is a very strong relation. The power of clay speaks here through its varied magical properties.                                                ←← terracotta roof tile

The cute bird roof tiles are functional as well as decorative. These tiles are mainly used in State of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh along with simple ones. In fact these tiles are now sold as artifacts. These black and red clay tube shape tiles are partially hand made and partially wheel thrown and baked. These tiles give thermal insulation and reduce outside sound. A tiled roof has a sound reduction potential of 30 decibels.

                                     paper ceramic loudspeakers

designer Yong Jieyu

 ceramic speakers              paper-waste

Ceramic, having one of the lowest sound absorbent co efficiency is one of the best materials for sound amplification.  Here clay is used with discarded musical scores to produce thin paper ceramic loudspeakers. Designer Yong Jieyu also scores destiny and contextual meaning of his products.

ecocarat ceramic wall

Inax from Japan has developed this ceramic wall which they say breaths. It is made of a completely natural ceramic material that utilizes tiny holes to absorb excess humidity in the room and release it when the air becomes dry. The wall is called ‘ecocarat’ and it reduces unpleasant smells and harmful airborne toxins too.

What you say clay surroundings!

Can you guess that it is innovative use of empty glass bottles!

This pictures are from eco-township Navadarshanam situated along the border of Thally reserve forest at Tamilnadu and Karnataka borders. Here an alternate way of life and working is translated in ecological living. The homes are built with Sun baked mud blocks for walls, terracotta tiles, red oxide and cement for flooring.
Terracotta and cement jaalis (lattice), recycled wood and bottles are used as design accents.

See more photos of this eco-community here and here.

A stunning concept of a resort hotel inside a water-filled quarry in China’s Songjiang district near Shanghai. Additional photos and information you can find here. 

Actually I have spent a good amount of time (12 years) in a Colliery. I have been inside a coal mine and to a quarry too. In India there have been many tragic accidents in mines.

So this concept to me is awe inspiringly beautiful.

Edit:

The songjiang hotel is not only a stunning concept it echoes green principles.

This Hotel will be a five-star resort hotel set within a beautiful water-filled quarry close to Shanghai in China, and is expected to be completed by May, 2009.

The innovative design of the 400-bed resort hotel stands two levels higher than the rock face of the 100 meter deep quarry and includes underwater public areas and guestrooms. An aquatic theme runs through the design both visually and functionally. Curved wings of the main body of the guestrooms enclose a naturally lit internal atrium, which uses the existing rock face with its waterfalls and green vegetation. Sports facilities and a ten-meter deep aquarium are also included in the plan.

Sustainability is integral to the design ranging from using green roofing for the structures above the ground level to geothermal energy extraction.

The city of Songjiang is also being developed as garden city.