EnviroGadget » Odd Gadgets

Tony’s Farm Tough Moulded-Pulp Eco-Packaging

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:00:52 +0000

Tony’s Farm Eco-Packaging is a step towards a more eco-friendly packaging for the leading organic farm in China. The farm wished to use a packaging that was more in fitting with its environmentally aware philosophy. This pulp molded box allows the produce to be safely transported while being reusable, stack-able and sustainable.

Tony’s Farm Eco-Packaging has been envisioned by designer Matthias Burhenne to allow Tony’s Farm in China to be able to transport their organic fruit and vegetables safely to their customers. The molded pulp packaging created from sustainable sources is moisture resistant, helping it to safely hold the produce, it is suitable for reuse and once it has come to the end of its usefulness the packaging can be easily recycled, or composted. Tony’s Farm Eco-Packaging has been designed to allow it to be stack-able, so that the amount of space the empty packaging takes is kept to a minimum.

The boxes are designed to be used to take the produce to the customers, and to be returned for reuse. The packaging boxes though could be useful in a variety of ways in a home. These boxes could make a suitable alternative to plastic bags or plastic boxes often used to transport produce. Though many supermarkets do allow you to reuse cardboard boxes when in store those using online delivery find their produce transported in many plastic bags, carried in plastic carriers. Many stores will collect the plastic bags for recycling, though reducing the amount of plastic used would still be of significant benefit to the environment. It is not known however why the produce pictured has been securely encased in differing plastic wrappers, the boxes would allow you to place in fruit and vegetables unwrapped.

Source: Matthias Burhenne

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Tony’s Farm Tough Moulded-Pulp Eco-Packaging article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Just Add Water – Encouraging Bottle Re-Use

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:29 +0000

Just Add Water is a concept for a bottle lid and flavour delivery system to help extend the amount of usage you can get from a standard water bottle. The Just Add Water idea is to allow you to refill bottles with tap water and add flavour to it to make the water more appealing.

Just Add Water is a concept designed by Plus Minus Design to help reduce the amount of empty water bottles that go to landfill or for recycling every day. Most people do not like the taste of tap water, and no matter how much they know that by refilling and reusing their water bottles they help to reduce the demand and waste of plastic they still cant bring themselves to drink the stuff. The Just Add Water lid steps in to make tap water more palatable. The lid is designed to fit on all standard water bottle necks, once in place securely the gelatin based liquid tab that is in the lid can dissolve on contact with the water, adding a burst of flavour to the tap water.

The Just Add Water lids are designed to allow you to be able to replace the gelatin based liquid tab, thus allowing you to reuse the bottle and its led time and time again. There is hope for the tabs to be made to add different things to the tap water to help make it more appealing, different flavours, maybe the ingredients to make the water into an energy drink, research into what the tabs could achieve is ongoing. The tabs would allow you to be able to add flavour anywhere, as they are small enough to be easily taken with you, all you would require is tap water to fill your bottle with.

The Just Add Water sports lid will be able to be recycled just like the water bottles when it is worn out. As the tabs will be sold in packs separately to allow you to refill your lid when needed, you would be able to buy and add the tabs without the lid, for those who do not like drinking from a sports lid or use bottles with a wider than standard mouth. The Just Add Water concept will help make it easier to reuse water bottles, refilling them with ordinary tap water and being able to transform it into something anyone would want to drink.

Source: iGreenSpot

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Just Add Water – Encouraging Bottle Re-Use article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Vac From The Sea By Electrolux

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:00:14 +0000

The Vac From The Sea is a concept by Electrolux to create vacuum cleaners from recycled plastic. Rather than using any old plastic they specifically wish to create vacuums from the plastic they will be gathering from the sea, either from floating plastic expanses or from shore lines.

With the Vac From The Sea concept, Electrolux hopes to highlight two major problems with plastic. Firstly the demand for plastic to recycle into more sustainable goods actually outstrips supply, meaning many who wish to create products from recycled plastic can struggle to do so. Secondly, and more importantly, there is a huge amount of plastic in the worlds waters. The oceans of this planet hold great amounts of plastic – there are vast floating island of plastic some, Electrolux informs us, are several times larger than the state of Texas. There is also a large quantity of plastic washed up on the worlds shorelines.

This plastic causes enormous problems for the environment, killing wildlife and destroying surrounding ecosystems. With only around 1% of plastic being recycled the amount of plastic going to waste is staggering. With Vac From The Sea this environmental horror can be turned into a new resource, helping to provide more recycled plastic that can be used to construct useful household items such as these vacuums. Electrolux plan to remove the plastic in different ways depending on the area they are working on, but methods will include diving for the plastic, scooping it from the waves, and clearing coastlines by hand. Hopefully the plastic reclaimed from the sea that is made into these products would never find its way back there. The dream would be that no other plastics find their way to our seas and that this clean up can highlight the action many need to take to recycle.

Source: Electrolux

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Vac From The Sea By Electrolux article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Recycled Circuit Board Credit Card Holder

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:00:22 +0000

This Recycled Circuit Board Credit Card Holder features a circuit board for both covers. The covers help to protect the cards while they are in a bag or pocket, stopping them from being bent or broken. This card holder should appeal to anyone with an interest in technology, computing or recycling.

This Circuit Board Credit Card Holder has been made by Revolve. This company endevours to make use of a common object that is often discarded on mass. Like the Clock and the Business Card Holder featured in previous articles, the credit card holder has been created out of previously unused printed circuit boards (PCBs).

Technology today is widely seen as disposable and with technological advancements even more mundane objects contain a PCB base from which the technology is built from and around. This has lead to an ever increasing need for PCBs. They are produced in vast numbers and sadly many created are never used. This is often down to the board having a slight fault, as there are extremely high standard required for these boards. Others are discarded simply due to technological advancements making them obsolete.

The company takes these unused PCBs and re-purposes them, using them to create objects like this credit card holder. The PCB covers for the front and back of the card holder provide it with a strong inflexible cover to prevent the cards inside for being bent or snapped. The covers additionally provide protection against the cards getting scratched.

The Recycled Circuit Board Credit Card Holder costs only £3.99 plus delivery.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Recycled Circuit Board Credit Card Holder article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Orange Power Wellies – Feet-Powered Gadget Charger

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:00:50 +0000

Orange Power Wellies are a prototype for a welly charger. The wellies produce electricity from the heat of your feet, and allow you to make use of this electricity to power your mobile phone.

The prototype wellies have been created to help those that go to music festivals, such as Glastonbury, to have a eco-friendly way of keeping their mobile phones charged and ready to use. Orange teamed up with renewable energy experts GotWind to create these fascinating wellies. The Orange Power Wellies collect power generated through the day and store it so it can be used to charge a phone. It is thought that about 12 hours of walking in the wellies would supply you with enough to charge your phone for about an hour. It is possible to create more electricity to give a longer charge time.

The wellies make use of an advanced scientific method knows as the ‘seebeck effect’. This allows the wellies to create electricity from the heat of your feet within them. Within the sole of the wellies there are thermoelectric modules which are constructed from thermocouples made out of semiconductor materials. These thermocouples are connected to form a thermopile, which is a collection of thermocouples. This thermopile is placed between two ceramic wafers housed within the welly’s sole. Electricity is created from the difference in temperature between the sole of your foot within the welly and the cold ground underneath it. The hotter your feet are within the wellies, the faster electricity is generated, allowing you more charge for your hours of wear.

The wellies provide you with means to access the electricity that has been generated through the top of the welly. By simply connecting up your phone to this, the electricity you have generated through the heat of your feet will be used to charge your mobile phone. These prototype Orange Power Wellies showcase a (warm) step towards a wider variety of effective eco-friendly electrical generation technologies.

Source: Orange

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Orange Power Wellies – Feet-Powered Gadget Charger article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Solar Spark Lighter – Solar-Powered Fire Starter

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:00:42 +0000

The Solar Spark Lighter brings the ability to create fire to anyone, without the need of lighter fuel. This lighter will never run out and can be used anytime there is a decent light source and a small amount of a combustible substance to hand.

The Solar Spark Lighter works by focusing the light that hits it at whatever has been placed between the prongs of the fork attached to the center of it. This focused light is hot enough to start burning whatever combustible material has been put in the prongs, things like wood, bark, paper, even things like incense, or marshmallows!

The disk of the lighter is a parabolic mirror, it is this shape that focuses the light in such an effective way to help you create fire. It can cause the focal point, which is between the two prongs, to reach very high temperatures. This lighter is pocket sized, with a diameter of only 11.4 cm (4.5 in), the two pronged fork part can be folded down to enable it to be placed into a pocket or bag to be taken to wherever you will require it.

Because the Solar Spark Lighter has been constructed from stainless steel it is durable, able to handle harsh conditions yet still be ready to go as long as there is light, and something combustible. It may require polishing from time to time to keep the surface clean and able to focus the light to its fullest potential. This lighter is perfect for anyone with interests in outdoor pursuits like camping, or hiking.

The Solar Spark Lighter costs just $19.95 plus shipping.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Solar Spark Lighter – Solar-Powered Fire Starter article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

ReZAP Battery Engineer – Recycle Standard Batteries

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:00:13 +0000

The ReZAP Battery Engineer revolutionizes battery charging as we know it. The charger allows you to charge rechargeable batteries and non-rechargeable ones, even at the same time! This technology signifies an end to disposable batteries only surviving one use.

The ReZAP Battery Engineer can be used to recharge all the common domestic battery types, Alkaline, RAM (Rechargeable Alkaline Manganese), Titanium, NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) and NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride). The sophisticated charger has a microprocessor control within it, this allows the charger to sense what each battery is in each bay, and supply it with its optimum charging of electricity. This means that the charger can charge any mix of batteries at a time, both of type and of size. It can be used to charge a wide range of sizes and shapes of battery, for example it can charge AA, AAA, AAAA, C, D, N, 9V, 6V and many others.

The charger can charge a mix of battery types and shapes at once providing each one with exactly what it needs. The makers believe that the charger can even benefit normal rechargeable batteries (NiCd and NiMH) because of how each battery is individually custom charged. They believe that it can increase the amount of charges the batteries can take, allowing NiCd to charge up to 1000 times compared to about 800 times using standard chargers, and allowing NiMH up to 600 times compared to about 500 times using standard chargers.

The charger allows non rechargeable batteries to be charged up to 15 times, depending on what type and make they are. This helps to prolong the life of these batteries, helping to reduce the numbers of them needing disposal. Due to the use of the microprocessor, you do not need to know what battery type you have as there is no need to select a switch for each one – everything happens automatically.

The ReZap Battery Engineer also comes with 4 AA to D-sized battery converters, these plastic covers allow you to use AA batteries like D batteries, to help reduce the number of different types of batteries you need to purchase. The charger allows you to prolong the life of all batteries, be able to charge a mix of types and sizes together, and helps to make recharging batteries a simple process.

The ReZap Battery Engineer costs just $49.99 with free shipping.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the ReZAP Battery Engineer – Recycle Standard Batteries article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Recycle your Floppy Disks – Floppy Disk Plant Pot

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:00:11 +0000

The Floppy Disk Planter is an effective way to make use of any unwanted floppy disks you have lying around. This home project gives full instructions on how to construct the planter, helping you to recycle these now obsolete items into something that is both useful and decorative.

The floppy disk was an item that was in high demand in the recent past. Many households have some of these filling up draws, in boxes, though mostly any data held on them is either no longer required or already backed up onto a CD/DVD. To help prevent so many ending up in landfill suggestions for how to re-purpose them have become popular, the idea of creating a planter appeals to us here at Envirogadget as a decorative way to get more plants into our homes.

To create your own Floppy Disk Planter you will need 6 floppy disks that are no longer required, an empty plastic bottle, a plant (preferably in its own plastic pot still) some glue, a pen, and a craft knife (or another implement that allows you to cut the bottle and a disk). This ‘Blue Peter’ style project is easy to follow and the resulting planter could be used for many other purposes, for example as a pen holder or utensils pot.

This home project allows you to make use of technology that is obsolete in today’s world, helping to prevent many of these disks going to landfill.

Source: CraziestGadgets

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Recycle your Floppy Disks – Floppy Disk Plant Pot article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Ecotek Energy Wizard – Simple Energy Saving Gadget

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:00:17 +0000

The Energy Wizard is a device that plugs into a standard UK 3 pin plug socket to help reduce the amount of electricity being used. By implementing techniques of filtration and correction to your electrical supply, the device helps to improve your household appliances efficiency.

The Energy Wizard made by Eco Tek works by optimising the voltage and current demands. All electricity we use comes in the form of both alternating current (AC) and voltage. Alternating current behaves as its name dictates, it alternates, fluctuating rapidly between high and low amounts many times in a second. For electricity to be used efficiently the rises and falls of both the current and the voltage should coincide, as they drift apart in timing the supply becomes less efficient, causing appliances to require more electricity than they would if the peaks and valleys were together.

Some household appliances actually contribute to the current and voltage peaks and valleys losing synchronisation. The Energy Wizard helps to manipulate the supply to get both current and voltage peeks and falls to happen in unison. This leads to more efficient electrical usage for a household, which will help to lower the amount of electricity being consumed and so reduce electricity bills. To work, the Energy Wizard needs to be plugged into a plug socket and left there. While it is in a plug socket and working, a LED indication light will be on. As most households have at least one socket that is never used, it should be fairly simple to place the device somewhere it can be left plugged in.

As the change in the current and voltage is down to the influence of appliances, and the interference they cause differs appliance to appliance, the saving a household can make by using a Energy Wizard can differ greatly. Though this device can sound a little like ‘snake oil’, the product has been tested to show its effectiveness. During independent testing on the device savings of up to 23% were made on some appliances, and the average saving was found to be around 12.5% on the total consumption of appliances tested. The Energy Wizard is guaranteed to reduce your electrical usage by up to 10%.

The Eco Tek Energy Wizard is currently £23.50 plus £5.35 delivery.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Ecotek Energy Wizard – Simple Energy Saving Gadget article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy:

Circuit Board Business Card Holder

Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:00:02 +0000

The Circuit Board Business Card Holder by Revolve has been mostly constructed from a discarded printed circuit board. This card holder will appeal to those in the computing industry, those with a passion about computing and to those who support recycling.

The Circuit Board Business Card Holder helps to recycle printed circuit boards (PCBs) by using them to construct parts of the card holder. As mentioned with the Circuit Board Clock, many PCBs are found to be flawed or even outdated before they are ever put to use. Revolve takes these unused boards and gives them a purpose, in this case by using them as part of the construction of a business card holder.

The quantity of unused PCBs is staggering. In today’s technological world, nearly every electronic appliance requires at least one PCB, with the demand so high that factories produce many of them daily. This mass production leads to high numbers that have a minor flaw causing them to be unsuitable for use, or for them to become obsolete before even sold. These PCBs are usually sent in large numbers to landfill. The Circuit Board Business Card Holder makes use of this often discarded material to create a card holder that makes a great talking point whether about electronics or about the environment.

The Circuit Board Business Card Holder is available for £7.99 plus delivery.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Circuit Board Business Card Holder article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Share and Enjoy: