Ecovative mushroom packaging
There are very few materials in the world I can’t stand the sight of as much as polystyrene (aka Styrofoam). Sure, it keeps our new electronics safe, our food warm, and our drugs cool… but the petroleum based material is an ecological disaster.
Luckily there are new products like the ones from Ecovative Design that use renewable materials like mushrooms and other agricultural byproducts that can be returned to the earth at the end of their use. Hopefully soon every new iMac, DVR, and Ikea lamp will be shipped in shrooms instead of nasty ol’ Styrofoam.
The landfill
“The Landfill” is a short film by Jessica Edwards and Gary Hustwit (of Helvetica / Objectified / Urbanized fame) showing the beauty and potential of the stuff we throw away.
Rise above plastics
Recent studies estimate that fish off the West Coast ingest over 12,000 tons of plastic a year. Find out how you can help turn the tide on plastic pollution at www.surfrider.org/rap.
Nasty stuff. For more on plastic’s impact on our health, check out the entertaining documentary film “Bag It.”
Shwood whiskey barrel sunglasses
Handcrafted in Portland, Oregon, these Shwood sunglasses are made from 100-year-old whiskey barrels. Very cool, but they don’t run cheap at $225 a pair.
Fraktur Dominoes
Fraktur is a very cool idea by Sandi Grigoryan to repurpose extra materials from furniture production into a modern game of dominoes.
Open Source Ecology
The ultimate in agricultural nerding. Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers and engineers that has been creating an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
We’ve come across examples of gym flooring made into skateboards and cabinets, and reused as flooring in residences. Here, it’s made into tables.
Pictured: The Origin Workstation by Mirato on Etsy.
Nightlights made from vintage cameras
This is a really nice example of finding a new purpose for cool old objects. More stuff like this please!
Update: The man behind the idea, Jason Hull, has provided step-by-step instructions for creating your own camera-lights!
EAMES: The Architect and The Painter
It’s about time somebody made a film about Charles and Ray Eames.
