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Post tags: can recycling, Cape Town, Coca Cola, coke crates, crate man, eco design, Elliot, green design, PET, plastic crates, plastic recycling, Recycled Materials, Recycling initiatives, sustainable design, Table Mountain, V&A Waterfront

1.2 billion people worldwide lack access to a clean water supply, and nearly 2 million children die each year just from diarrhea (which is often water-borne). SODIS solar water disinfection systems offer a solution to these pressing issues by disinfecting contaminated water using the sun’s UV-A rays. Over the course of six hours, exposure to solar energy destroys harmful viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, rendering the water safe to drink. Although specially-designed SODIS bottles exist, ordinary PET plastic bottles work just as well – plus they are abundant, durable, and allow UV radiation to pass through them. In some places, this technique has reduced the incidence of diarrhea by over 85%.

Read the rest of SODIS: PET Bottles Can Serve as Cheap Solar Water Disinfection Systems

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Post tags: appropriate design, appropriate technology, bottle, clean water, green design, heierle, PET, sodis, Solar Bottle, solar water disinfection, water bottle, water contamination, water disinfection

Sherwin-Williams recently received an Environmental Protection Agency award for their paint made in part from recycled PET bottles and soybean oil. First unveiled in 2010, the three new Water-Based Acrylic Alkyd Technology (WBAAT) paints received top marks under the Designing Greener Chemicals category of the 2011 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. By replacing oil, which is currently the standard base for the firm’s alkyd paints, with the PET/Soybean alternative, Sherwin-Williams has reduced the emissions of harmful Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) by 60%.

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Post tags: eco design, eco-friendly paint, environmental protection agency, green design, green materials, oil, PET, Recycled Materials, Sherwin-Williams, soybean oil, Sustainable Materials, voc

PepsiCo just unveiled a brand new, 100% renewable PET plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based resources that could revolutionize the bottling industry. Coca-Cola and other consumer giants have also made their commitment to producing sustainable packaging known, but until now, none have come as far as Pepsi when it comes to totally renewable bottles. PepsiCo’s pilot project will take off in 2012, after which the company intends to launch full-scale commercial production.

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Post tags: biodegradeable, corporate social responsibility, eco design, eco packaging, green design, packaging, pepsico, PET, plant-based packaging, plastic, renewable, sustainable design, sustainable packaging

Calling all green graphic designers!

Did you know you can’t recycle bioplastics? A single bioplastic container thrown in a batch of recycled PET will ruin the whole batch and make it non recyclable. There is a lot of confusion amongst consumers as to what bioplastic is and how to dispose of it properly — with this in mind, Cereplast, Inc. just launched a design competition that offers you the opportunity to “make your mark” on a new generation of green products made from bioplastics. They’re looking for a symbol that can be stamped onto products to show that they are made from green, bio-based materials, and they’re offering $25,000 to one grand prize winner – so enter today!

Read the rest of Design a Symbol for Bioplastics in Cereplast’s “Make Your Mark” Contest!

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Post tags: bioplastics, cereplast, cereplast design competition, compostable, eco design, Gary Anderson, green, green design, green products, inhabitat, Karim Rashid, make your mark, make your mark contest, PET, PLA, recycling symbol, sustainable design

Here at Inhabitat we’ve showcased a host of amazing structures made from repurposed bottles, but we’ve never a project as polished and sleek as this. The Far Eastern Group sponsored this three story “EcoARK” movable Fashion Pavilion for the 2010 Taipei International Expo. The just-finished structure features walls made entirely out of plastic bottles and it’s built to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. These aren’t your average-joe coke bottles, however — they’re POLLI-Bricks by miniWIZ!

Read the rest of EcoARK Pavilion made from 1.5 Million Plastic Bottles

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Post tags: ecoark, green building materials, green design, hymini, miniwiz, pavilion, PET, plastic bottle bricks, Plastic bottles, polli brick, sustainable design, taipei, Taiwan

IBM researchers announced yesterday that they discovered a method of creating highly recyclable plastics from one of the most eco-friendly materials around – plants. Not only are the material’s components greener than traditional petroleum-based products, the production process uses significantly less energy.

Read the rest of IBM Creates Plant-Based, Highly Recyclable Plastics

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Post tags: green plastic, ibm, metal catalyst, new plastic, organic polymer, organocatalyst, PET, plastic, Recycle, recycleable plastic, stanford university, water bottles

Chinese designer Xuan Yu’s Rethink hanger caught our attention as a clever concept for storing your threads, but we’re not casting our vote just yet for this “eco” product. Touted as a green solution, this plastic bit requires empty bottles screwed into either side in order to function. There’s no doubt that these brightly-colored molded plastic parts have a sleek look, but is it valid to call a product eco-friendly just because it proposes to reuse bottles?

Read the rest of IS IT GREEN?: Rethink Hanger Repurposes Plastic Bottles

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Post tags: Bottles, chinese, Clothes, clothing, Eco, green, hanger, is it green, PET, recycled, Rethink, reuse, storage

Why does NYC send easily recyclable PET plastic containers to landfill?

New York City recycles plastic – or so I thought! For the last several years I have been carefully scrubbing all plastic number 1 (PET) and number 2 (HDPE) containers (such as most deli containers that you get when you buy tomatoes or sliced fruit) and collecting them for NYC recycling. Just yesterday the superintendent of my building brought a giant bag of deli containers back up to me from the recycling bin and said ‘This all needs to go in the trash – NYC won’t recycle it‘. I stared at him disbelief until he pulled out a flyer from the NYC government stating that it WON’T TAKE ANY PLASTIC EXCEPT PLASTIC BOTTLES – even easily recyclable #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastic!

This news blew my mind – why would the New York City government waste a chance to recycle all the PET and HDPE in non-bottle containers such as fruit and deli containers? Especially when most other cities (such as San Francisco) DO recycle all plastics? According to the NYC recycling website, it seems that the reason NYC is not doing it is because ‘it is not worth the effort’:

Read the rest of GREEN RANT: Why Won’t NYC Recycle Plastic?

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Post tags: HDPE recycling, NY Plastic REcycling, NYC Plastic Recycling, NYC Recycling, PET, PET containers, PET recycling, PETE, PETE containers, plastic number 1, Recycling PET in NYC