Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s largest public celebrations, featuring nearly 2 million costumed party goers, an extravagant parade, and of course, lots of alcohol consumption. The creatives behind Ambev‘s Antarctica Beer saw an opportunity, and installed custom turnstiles during the event that allow people to “pay” with an empty beer can. Not only did this encourage over 1,000 people per hour to use public transit (instead of getting behind the wheel), it also helped a recycling NGO, to which all of the cans were donated. How cool would it be if all public transit could be paid for with recyclables?

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Post tags: AlmapBBDO, AmBev, antarctica, beer, beer turnstyle, event, marketing, public transit, recycling, rio de janeiro, safety

Taking stock of your belongings, you will undoubtedly come across a hodge-podge of old or broken electronics that need to be recycled. Determining where or how to safely dispose of devices can take a substantial amount of research, and attempting to recover any sort of monetary investment can take weeks of maintaining a Cragislist ad. The ecoATM offers a quick and simple way to get some cash back for your defunct gadgets. Nominated for a 2013 Index Design Award, the kiosk can connect to your mobile device, search for the highest price on the global market, and compensate you if you agree to sell it. The ecoATM was recently nominated as a finalist for the world’s biggest design prize – the 2013 Index: Award.

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Post tags: California, cash, Craigslist, e-Stewards, e-waste, ecoatm, electronic recycling, index design award, kiosk, r2 solutions, san diego

This weekend, the sixth installment of the ever-popular Fast and Furious franchise roared into US cinemas with its box office-winning combination of fast cars, big biceps and simmering homo-eroticism. However despite being a film based around gas-guzzling cars, large explosions and globe-trotting antics, the production actually tried to reduce their footprint (despite trashing over 300 cars!) where they could as part of Universal Studios’ ‘Green Is Universal’ policy.

Read the rest of How Fast and Furious 6 Tried to Reduce its Enormous Carbon Footprint

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Post tags: carbon footprint, Fast and Furious, Fast and Furious 6, Fast and Furious 6 carbon footprint, films, Green is Universal, London, movies, Paul Walker, recycling, THe Rock, Universal Studios, Vin Diesel

The Free Things Box (FTB) is a freebie box that’s placed in front of the house as a friendly means for recycling small, still useful objects. Many people have a lot of stuff that’s still in good order and don’t want to throw it away. The FTB allows residents to find new homes for these items, locally with their neighbors. The design of the FTB is simple with the front side featuring a window for a quick look, an opening on top, and a sloping lid that can be closed at night time to keep out unwanted guests. There are just three rules that need to be followed when using the FTB: 1. It is only kept open during daytime; 2. You can only take things you can use; and 3. Only one thing can be taken at a time. Watch the video above to learn how to build one of your own or download the building plan here. The Free Things Box can be made for about 50 dollars.

Via Berto’s Blog

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Post tags: free things box, freebie box, ftb, recycling box, recycling initiative, recycling with friends, recycling with neighbors

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Post tags: green design, Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), plastic waste, plastic waste reuse, pop-up cafés, Recycled Materials, recycled waste, recycling, student recycling project, Trash Café Newcastle, U-café Newcastle University, Upcycling Newcastle University, waste recycling

When tires reach the end of the road, they often wind polluting the environment in landfills. In Europe alone, 3 million tons of tires are produced each year – and 60-70% of them are dumpstered. To take advantage of this untapped resource the EU has created the TyGRe Project, which is researching ways that old tires can be turned into new sources of synthetic fuel and precursors to electronic components.

Read the rest of Europe’s TyGRe Project Turns Old Tires Into Energy and Valuable Materials

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Post tags: Ceramics, electronics, enea, EU, fuel, italy, portici, Recycle, silicon carbide, syngas, tire, trisaia, tygre project

“Atlas Recycled” is a sculpture of the mythical Greek titan bearing the earth on his shoulders that doubles as a recycling receptacle for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and paper. In addition to serving as a recycling aid, the sculpture itself is made primarily from reused materials including over 30 pieces of maps and atlases. Artist Tom Tsuchiya (soo-chee-ya) constructed the sculpture’s internal structure from wood, foam, and steel scraps from his studio. He installed a hidden door on the globe portion of the sculpture to allow the recyclable contents to be removed. “Atlas Recycled” exhibits in various cities to promote the improvement of our environment through art. The sculpture has previously celebrated Earth Day on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square (2010), New York City’s Grand Central Terminal (2011) and Washington D.C.’s National Mall (2012). Though Tsuchiya is best known for creating bronze sculptures for the NFL and Major League Baseball, he has a passion for improving our environment through creative ways.

+ Atlas Recycled

+ Tom Tsuchiya

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

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Post tags: atlas, Atlas Recycled, eco-art, green art, green design, Recycled Materials, recycled sculpture, recycling, Recycling initiatives, sustainable design, Tom Tsuchiya, urban art

Can a simple redesign of the trash can make recycling so easy that everyone will do it? That is what husband and wife team Jeff and Liz Helfrich, asked when they invented the Solecan, a trash/recycling bin made from recycled plastic. The Solecan is a small dual compartment trash/recycle can that snaps apart to make emptying trash and recycling separately a breeze. The Solecan will be made in the U.S.A. in a variety of colors. If their Kickstarter campaign, which runs until Earth Day (April 22), is a success, the Helfriches hope the Solecan will help make recycling a habit in every room and keep millions of pounds of recyclables out of landfills.

+ Solecan

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Post tags: green design, green products, Recycled Materials, Recycled Plastic, recycling bin, Recycling initiatives, solecan, sustainable design, Sustainable Interiors, trash can

Inhabitat readers might remember that we interviewed California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom back when he was the mayor of San Francisco in a live webcast that was open to any of our readers who wanted to attend. The finale of our Green Talks series of live chats with green thought-leaders, this interview touched on subjects such as mandatory composting, electric vehicle infrastructure and political leadership in CA. Our interview with Mayor Newsom was provocative and inspiring, and was a can’t-miss bit of Inhabitat journalism, if we do say so ourselves. Happily, for those of you who missed this amazing interview – we finally have the videos together of the interview in its entirety. We’ve chopped the full 35 minute transcript down into 4 shorter, themed segments for easier viewing. Enjoy!

Read the rest of VIDEO: Inhabitat Interviews California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom!

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Post tags: California, electric cars, Gavin Newsom, green building San Francisco, green politics in california, green san francisco, high speed rail in CA, INHABITAT GREEN TALKS, inhabitat interviews, mandatory composting, mandatory recycling, renewable energy, san francisco city hall, san francisco mayor gavin newsom, solar power San Francisco, Video, youtube video

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Post tags: abu dhabi, abu dhabi sustainability week, air-scrubbing pavilion, clean tech, eco design, green design, Gulf, hwkn, March Kushner, Masdar, Matthias Hollwich, MoMO PS1 Young Architects Program, oil, renewable energy, Sheikha Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, smog eating pavilion, sustainable design, united arab emirates, Wendy, WFES

One of the great joys of living in the urban jungle is the daily discovery of treasures left out on the sidewalk. Sadly, the elements have a way of destroying the best finds before hunters have a chance to give them a once over. In an effort to protect curbside donations and inspire altruistic behavior, Dutch designers Waarmakers have created the Goedzak, a special bag designed especially for giveaways. Partially transparent and clad in fluorescent yellow, the flexible garbage bag sets goods apart from other landfill waste.

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Post tags: altruism, Amsterdam, bag, curbside, donations, dutch, goedzak, kringloop het goed, landfill, plastic, rubbish, sack, second hand, simon akkaya, trash, waarmakers

Cars accounted for a whopping 21% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK in 2009, but a creative new program from Giveacar and Trees for Cities aims to repair some of the damage caused by cars through the use of cars themselves. Scrap Car Plant Tree takes donations of cars and uses the money they get from the scrap or from the car’s auction value to plant trees across the country.

Read the rest of UK Drivers Trade Their Old Cars for New Trees Through the ‘Scrap Car Plant Tree’ Program

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Post tags: beautifying urban areas in the uk by planting trees, car donations in the uk, cars as polluters of the environment, collection and disposal of cars, giveacar, greening the uk, money raised from car donations used to plant trees across the uk, one car donations funding 13 trees, planting and caring for a tree through maturity, planting trees in the uk, scrap car plant tree, trees for cities

For pay-as-you-go cell phone users, using high-end smartphones can be a pricey investment. Vodafone, a UK cell phone service, has a nifty solution to the cost problem that also happens to be great for the planet: pre-used smartphones. The Vodafone Nearly New program repackages gently used smartphones and sells them along with a pay-as-you-go or contract plan at a fraction of the normal cost.

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Post tags: Nearly new phone program, nearly new smartphones, Pay-as-you-go cell phone, PAYG smartphones, pre-used cellphone, recycling smartphones, used smartphones, Vodafone cellular plans, Vodafone Nearly New, Vodafone PAYG

It happens every year: After the holidays are over, you’re left with a huge stack of holiday cards and packaging. But instead of throwing them in the recycling bin, you can reuse both your holiday cards and gift wrap by turning them into next year’s gift tags. Read on to learn how to create these fun gift tags in a few easy steps.

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Post tags: Christmas cards, christmas gifts, DIY gift tags, gift wrap, green holidays, green parenting, holiday cards, holiday gift wrap, Inhabitots, recycling, upcycling

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the green house
“We’re not ready for Christmas yet!” the whole family groused
They’d all been too busy working and living
Seems like only a day had passed since Thanksgiving!
But they knew they still wanted a green holiday
So they prepared to celebrate thoughtfully – they could do it in just 1 day!

Read the rest of ‘Twas the Night Before (a Green) Christmas…

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Post tags: christmas eve, eco santa, green christmas, green christmas eco holiday, green christmas poem, green gifts, green holiday, green version of twas the night before christmas, inhabitat holiday, twas the night before christmas

The Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina has deployed 1.9 million worms to turn a boatload of organic waste into fertilizer. Every day the airport housekeeping department headed by Bob Lucas processes 2.5 tons of waste, including plastic, clothing, aluminum and food tossed out by rushed passengers, NPR reports. The recyclables are pulled out from the pile and sold and the organic waste is transferred to a giant composting bin where the army of red wigglers go to work.

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Post tags: Charlotte Douglas International Airport, composting, divert waste from the landfill, Environment, fertilizer, food waste, News, north carolina, recyclables, recycling, Recycling initiatives, red wigglers, usa

Fast-fashion retailer H&M is ramping up its sustainability efforts with a major new recycling initiative. This week, H&M announced that it will launch the world’s first global clothes recycling program. The company says it will help its customers avoid textile waste by accepting items of clothing from any brand and in any condition. It doesn’t change the fact that H&M produces low-quality, disposable clothes that are made in sweatshop-like conditions, but it’s a step in the right direction.

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Post tags: Clothes, clothes stores, clothing recycling, eco-fashion, fast fashion, green clothes, h&m, H&M recycling, recycled clothes, recycling, Recycling initiatives, Sustainable Fashion

EcoBot III is a lightweight self-sustaining robot designed to clean wastewater! Powered by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), the robot runs off human waste, using it to produce electricity necessary for performing its cleaning task. The project was funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and developed in collaboration between Wessex Water and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in England.

Read the rest of EcoBot III is a Human Waste-Powered Robot that Cleans Wastewater!

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", biomass energy, bristol robotics laboratory, eco-friendly robots, ecobot III, EPSRC, lightweight robot, microbial fuel cells, wastewater cleaning robot

Each year over 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown into United States landfills, and 12-year-old “Eco” Erek Hansen has made it his personal mission to make sure more of those shoes are recycled. The Ohio kid has been organizing shoe drives in his home town, collecting cast off sneaks and turning them over to clothing recycler USAgain. He and his mother drove the 4,000 pairs of shoes he collected all the way to the to the USAgain clothing recycling facility in West Chicago. The shoes will either be reused by the underprivileged or recycled.

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Post tags: “Eco” Erek Hansen, EcoErek, Erek Hansen, OHIO, recycled shoes, recycled sneakers, recycling, Recycling initiatives, USAgain, West Chicago

To help deliver power to the more than 3,000 families living far from Bosnia’s power grid, the United Nations is offering a $20,000 prize to whoever invents a relatively cheap renewable energy solution. The winning solution should cost less than $6,500, and it should be easily able to supply an average household with hot water and electricity.

Read the rest of UN Offers Prize to Help Bring Power to 3,000 Bosnian Homes Using Renewable Energy

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", cheap electricity, green design, humanitarian action, low energy lighting, renewable energy solutions, sustainable competition, UN initiative, United Nations, united nations bosnia