Tag Archives: recycle

Reuse Design

Furniture designers embrace sustainability at Milan Design Week, with 3Rs – reduce, reuse recycle – to the fore as much as 3D | South China Morning Post

British designer Timothy Oulton turned to natural materials, working with Chinese indigo dye craftsmen in a remote village to create fabric for his Noble Souls sofa range shown in Milan.

The unprecedented manifesto from the organisers of April’s fair called on the design industry to improve innovation and sustainability, and to embrace the circular economy. In practice, this means exploring new solutions for recycling materials and working with sustainable natural materials, keeping resources in use for as long as possible, and recovering and regenerating materials at the end of their life.

Source: Furniture designers embrace sustainability at Milan Design Week, with 3Rs – reduce, reuse recycle – to the fore as much as 3D | South China Morning Post

Markets, Waste News

Report: Global construction waste will almost double by 2025 | Waste Dive

According to the study, “reduce, reuse and recycle” policies are necessary to control the amount of construction waste, but insufficient resources, lack of standardization, slim profit margins, policy apathy and lack of education on the issues are keeping that from happening. The Asia Pacific region is expected to generate a majority of the construction waste in the year to come, followed by North America. Europe, according to the report, has developed the best construction waste management technologies.

Source: Report: Global construction waste will almost double by 2025 | Waste Dive

Reuse Design

Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest / Blog / Vissla

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Over the past six weeks, we’ve hosted the inaugural Vissla + Surfrider Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest – challenging the public to take something that might be considered waste and create something that can be used in the ocean. We had the pleasure of gathering the community to celebrate the results of this contest and the finalists’ projects on Saturday night at Interval Gallery in San Clemente, CA. A packed house included the Orange County surf community, Creators & Innovators Jay Nelson and Donald Brink, and almost all of the contest finalists including some Internationals who made the trek from Japan, Australia, Cayman Islands and Washington.

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via Recap | Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest / Blog / Vissla.

Reuse Design

The three Rs of building: reclaim, reuse, repurpose – Winston-Salem Journal: Home

20150911w_fea_diy

RICCI BUILDERS

“We build new homes and use reclaimed materials to give homes character,” said Ricci, who has recently used reclaimed old wood from a R. J. Reynolds downtown factory building in his construction projects. “There are 100 or 200 years of character in that wood.”

Homeowners feel a great sense of pride over preserving old, valuable materials. They add beauty to the home and become conversation pieces.

20150911w_fea_diyBLACK DOG SALVAGE

via The three Rs of building: reclaim, reuse, repurpose – Winston-Salem Journal: Home.

Waste News

Green Building Elements | From brick and mortar shops to city planning, we cover sustainable trends in construction, renovation, and more.

US GHG emissions

If you examine some our most prominent building materials, it quickly becomes obvious that the way we’re doing things is causing a multitude of harm to our planet. The effects include a short list of things like land destruction from mining, deforestation, and significant greenhouse gas emissions from high energy consuming manufacturing.

via Green Building Elements | From brick and mortar shops to city planning, we cover sustainable trends in construction, renovation, and more..

Reuse Design

Railroad Spike Beer Rack Train by RailroadWare

 

 

 

RR_Spike_Wine Train_Rack_8b

All aboard functional piece of heavy duty Railroadware. This unique shelving & product display system is an ideal way to display and feature your favorite cans & bottles. It can handle the job storing your products with an attractive rustic style, industrial old world charm and functionality. Your favorite bottle or can is the locomotive. (Fine wines or beer not included.)

Used in restaurants, bars, and homes, The storage system comes with 2-spikes,  2-rebar rails,  2- cast iron escutcheon washer2 ½” dia. and 2-wood screws 1/4″x 2″  that can be removed and replaced with any hardware you need.

RR_Spike_Wine_Train_Rack_06

Custom sizes and longer trains are available. Each track carries a train featuring your bottles and cans. You can stack you precious cargo on the rails or purchase multiple shelves. Orient them east or west bound either way they make a nice addition to your kitchen or bar station.

RR_Spike_Beer Train_Rack_1b

Attach to wall studs @ 32” O.C. or consult contractor for drywall or other installation. Extra Additional RR spike brackets and ½” rebar gauge track available.

RR_Spike_Beer Train_Rack_3b

RailroadWare Logo IconWHAT IS RAILROADWARE?

We upcycle and repurpose common industrial artifacts transforming them into products that provide a historical accent to commercial or residential spaces. Combining the ruggedness of upcycled industrial steel and glass, our products add distinctive depth and texture to your decor without overwhelming. They are also delightfully functional and all made in USA.

Railroad Spike Beer Rack Train 44″ – 6 pack – RailroadWare.

Reuse Design

‘Ding’ Darling reveals silent auction items for Upcycle! | Fort Myers Newspaper | News, Business, Real Estate and Arts in Fort Myers FL | Florida

Chris Tymoshuk from Troutdale, Ore., carved his silent auction lamp from a recycled Disney trivia tin with a torch. It is valued at $100. Chris Tymoshuk from Troutdale, Ore., carved his silent auction lamp from a recycled Disney trivia tin with a torch. It is valued at $100.

“This year, as we expand the second annual Upcycle! Art Fest to two days, we have decided to also offer more auction pieces from our artists,” said Upcycle! committee chair Barb Rogers. “We are thrilled that already Andrew Corke has donated another unique collector’s piece. His work is an amazing representation of the upcycling concept. Two other artists have also agreed to contribute pieces, and we are expecting more.”

via ‘Ding’ Darling reveals silent auction items for Upcycle! | Fort Myers Newspaper | News, Business, Real Estate and Arts in Fort Myers FL | Florida.

Reuse Design

Oxgut Hose Company Makes Household Products Using Reclaimed Fire Hose | Inhabitat

Oxgut Hose, Oxgut Hose Company, reclaimed fire hose, fire hose, recycling, repurposes fire hose, fire hose, reader submitted content, reader submission, reclaimed products, reclaimed home products, reclaimed furniture, recycled furniture, recycled chairs, recycled furniture

The company, which is based in Oakland, CA. works with Bay Area designers and artisans to make furniture and accessories that feature reclaimed fire hose, keeping them out of the landfill.

via Oxgut Hose Company Makes Household Products Using Reclaimed Fire Hose | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building.

Waste News

Importing garbage for energy is good business for Sweden on Vimeo

 

 

Everyone produces waste, and the Swedes are no different. It’s what they do with it that is unusual. Sweden recycles and sorts its waste so efficiently that less than 1 percent ends up in landfills. But perhaps even more interesting, and somewhat controversial, is that Sweden burns about as much household waste as it recycles, over 2 million tons, and converts this to energy. But even with this amount of domestic waste, the country’s 32 waste-to energy (WTE) incineration plants can handle even more. And when Sweden runs out of its own garbage, it offers a service to the rest of garbage-bloated Europe: importing excess waste from other countries.

Importing garbage for energy is good business for Sweden from Sweden on Vimeo.

Reuse Design

Bureo Skateboards

Bureo

Bureo designs and manufactures a unique line of sustainable skateboards. Bureo’s innovative boards are manufactured in Chile through the team’s initiative, ‘Net Positiva’, Chile’s first ever fishnet collection & recycling program. Net Positiva provides fisherman with environmentally sound disposal points, while Bureo receives highly recyclable and durable raw materials. By offering recycled high quality products, Bureo enables ethically conscious consumers to support recycling development and job growth for local inhabitants.

The Minnow Cruiser Deck

via Bureo Skateboards.

Waste News

Salvage, recycling can cut home improvement waste – Sentinel & Enterprise

* Speak to contractors about recycling. Contractors working on a home typically know which materials can be recycled in a given area. When discussing prospective projects with contractors, homeowners can mention their willingness to recycle materials. Wood is a versatile material that can be turned into reclaimed or composite wood products, including decks or other items used around the home. Old wood being removed from a home may even work as mulch, which homeowners can spread around their yards to add aesthetic appeal and protect plants on hot summer days. Even asphalt and concrete can be recycled into new products, and homeowners should discuss their wishes to recycle as many materials as possible.

via Salvage, recycling can cut home improvement waste – Sentinel & Enterprise.

Reuse Design

3-Story Floating School in Nigeria Rides on Recycled Barrels | Urbanist

Web Urbanist has the best articles day and night.

floating school in contexts

A simple wooden stick-frame approach made it possible to construct the building inexpensively, using largely local building techniques and upcycled materials. The project’s “main aim is to generate a sustainable, ecological, alternative building system and urban water culture for the teeming population of Africa’s coastal regions.”

floating platform barrel prototype

via 3-Story Floating School in Nigeria Rides on Recycled Barrels | Urbanist.

Waste News

Waiting for Take-Back Programs for Building Materials – EBN: 22:11

Among building products, carpet rules the EPR game

Interface, the largest producer of modular carpet in the world, says it has reclaimed more than 220 million pounds of carpet since 1994 through its “ReEntry” take-back program. “Carpet retains its value, so from the very beginning, throwing it into a landfill didn’t make any sense,” according to Eric Nelson, Interface’s vice president of strategic alliances. The company accepts any brand of carpet, whether the owner is buying new carpet from Interface or not. Its facility focuses on recycling backing, but it has also moved into recovering nylon fiber—sending any materials that do not work well with its remanufacturing process to other facilities it partners with.

The company benefits by being less dependent on unstable prices of the raw material used to make carpet—oil. “We know that recycling used carpet into new products brings us cost savings by distancing us from the cost-volatility of petroleum,” Nelson told EBN. “49% of our global footprint is now non-virgin petroleum-based.”

Other take-back programs, such as the one at Milliken & Company, promise that if carpet can’t be recycled, it will be donated to charity or incinerated at a waste-to-energy facility. Tandus even offers financial incentives for vinyl-backed carpet.

What about other building materials?

Gaining traction and realizing cost savings have been more difficult for other building product manufacturers. CertainTeed, for example, has take-back programs for its vinyl siding, roofing shingles, and ceiling panels, but “logistics” make the programs cost neutral for the company, marketing manager Brian Kirn told EBN. “The re-manufacturing process is a no-brainer. It’s getting enough participation that’s the challenging part.” In the case of vinyl siding, contractors have to be willing to place a dedicated dumpster on the jobsite, and although they avoid paying a fee for landfill disposal, they incur costs in transportation that have to be justified by volume.

via Waiting for Take-Back Programs for Building Materials – EBN: 22:11.

State of the Oceans

Waste To Waves Recycling Program Gives Foam A Second, Ocean-Friendlier Life

foam ocean

Michael Stewart, co-founder of Sustainable Surf (a San Francisco nonprofit), discovered this sad reality over years of participating in California beach clean ups. Tired of seeing this type of plastic trash in and around the ocean, Stewart and Sustainable Surf’s other co-founder Kevin Whilden started the Waste to Waves program, which aims to recycle styrofoam packaging back into new products — most notably, surfboards.

surfboard shaper

via Waste To Waves Recycling Program Gives Foam A Second, Ocean-Friendlier Life.

Reuse Design

Brighton University Students Build a Prefab Pavilion With Timber Off-Cuts | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

For the third year running, Brighton University graduate students have showcased their learning in an end-of-year project currently on display at the UK university. This year’s beautiful pavilion was developed as a group effort between architecture and interior architecture students, and it was built using mostly recycled off cuts derived from the construction industry.

Don’t miss the slideshow via Brighton University Students Build a Prefab Pavilion With Timber Off-Cuts | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building.

Deconstruction

Mesa’s Eastmark works to recycle, repurpose most of what GM left behind – East Valley Tribune: Mesa

Old GM Proving Grounds

When DMB purchased the GM Proving grounds in 2006, the company received records from GM about what was left on the property – from 430,000 square feet of buildings to 85 miles of race track and roadway to pounds of copper wiring. GM also handed over photos and pages of data detailing how everything was constructed. DMB then sold the items to Reclamation Sciences for $100 – then asked the company to recycle or find new uses for at least 95 percent of it.

“We first began with what GM left. They were very good stewards. They built stuff to last,” DeQuina said. “The other thing they did was keep pretty meticulous records. We refer to them today. That helps us to understand how things are built. All of us have background in construction, so it’s a reverse type of thinking. So we refer to those records and plans to help us come up with a methodical plan to undo and unbuild stuff.”

“There is a little trial and error often, but it helps us to develop propriety techniques on how to remove items and preserve and create value by removing them in a certain way,” DeQuina said.

So far, DMB, with Reclamation Sciences, has recycled 3 million pounds of ferrous metal, 254,000 pounds of copper, 30,000 tons of asphalt and concrete and 36 metal building packages.

“They have systematically worked to repurpose, reclaim or reuse as much as they can,” said Dea McDonald, DMB’s Senior Vice President and Eastmark’s General Manager.

As far as the idea to send no more than 5 percent to the landfill, DeQuina said, “We’re crushing that goal. We’re well under 5 percent.”

via Mesa’s Eastmark works to recycle, repurpose most of what GM left behind – East Valley Tribune: Mesa.

Waste News

US Throws $11.4 Billion in the Trash. Every Year. : TreeHugger

Can We Really Afford to Do That?

A recent report by As You Sow, a non-profit focusing on promoting “environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies”, shows that Americans are throwing cash in the trash, almost literally. At least 11.4 billion dollars in recyclables – steel, plastics, glass, paper, etc – are not recycled and thus wasted. The report argues for “extended producer responsibility” (EPR), which would shift the responsibility for post-consumer waste from taxpayers and municipal governments to the companies that produce the packaging, creating incentives for producers to reduce the amount of packaging they create, increasing packaging recycling rates, providing revenue to improve recycling systems, and reducing carbon and energy use.

Read the entire article on TreeHgger.com via US Throws $11.4 Billion in the Trash. Every Year. : TreeHugger.

Reuse Design

Colossal | Animal Sculptures Made from Reclaimed Household Objects

Animal Sculptures Made from Reclaimed Household Objects sculptures recycling animals

Artist Sayaka Ganz was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up living in Japan, Hong Kong and Brazil, and now lives and works in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ganz was deeply impacted as a child by Japanese Shinto beliefs that all objects and organisms have spirits, and was also taught that objects discarded before the end of their usefulness “weep at night inside the trash bin” (this is so wonderful I’m going to start teaching this to my son immediately). As her artistic side developed, she infused her artwork with these beliefs, using discarded and reclaimed household objects as a medium for her sculptures.

Animal Sculptures Made from Reclaimed Household Objects sculptures recycling animals

Animal Sculptures Made from Reclaimed Household Objects sculptures recycling animals

via Colossal | An art and design blog..

Reuse Design

Inhabitat | Bottom Up Showcases Giant Spider-Like House Made of Recycled Materials in Barcelona

Raumlabor, The Institute of Placemaking, eme3, Barcelona, Bottom Up, International Architecture Festival, Found materials, green materials, recycled materials, recycled design, urban design, urban intervention, green design, sustainable design, eco-design

A giant spider-like house made of recycled materials is just one of the many surprising projects that could emerge from the Bottom Up festival in Barcelona this weekend. Open to the public at no cost, this urban intervention project at eme3′s seventh International Architecture Festival will draw 50 participants from around the world. Artists, designers and architects will converge in different parts of the city to present a series of exciting design workshops that encourage uninhibited creativity – often using found materials. The Institute of Placemaking is among this year’s participants and they are planning to build fun new structures made entirely of recycled materials.

via Inhabitat | Design For a Better World!.

Waste News

Recycling plant built from recycled materials – Saskatchewan – CBC News

A new recycling plant is officially opened in Saskatoon.

A new recycling plant is officially opened in Saskatoon. Kathy Fitzpatrick/CBC

A new recycling plant opened Friday in Saskatoon, built from 13,000 tonnes of recycled material.

The SARCAN facility expects to process 175 million beverage containers per year. It will also go through 8,400 tonnes of salvage material in a year, more than double the capacity of its former plant.

Portions of the building were fabricated from recycled glass, asphalt and rubber.

via Recycling plant built from recycled materials – Saskatchewan – CBC News.

Reuse Design

before & after: sofa made from old doors | Design*Sponge

You know my love of “frankenfurniture” (a neologism I’m desperately trying to spread around), and it should come as no surprise that I adore this sofa that D*S reader John Doucet made from old doors. Now the key to successful frankenfurniture is not just a novel idea of how to combine or turn one furniture object into another, it’s also the execution. A sofa made from old doors could be a big old mess if designed poorly, which is why I admire John’s piece all the more. I love the look of the subtle tilt, the decision to leave the old metal details and the hours of work John put into stripping the doors down to their beautiful raw state. This is a truly gorgeous piece, and for $55 (!), you could not score something of this quality in a million years. Can you tell I want one of my own? 🙂 Wonderful job, John! — Kate

via before & after: sofa made from old doors | Design*Sponge.