Recycling
Not everyone has the luxury of space to store large recycle bins, especially if you live in a flat and don't even have an outside space. This pull out recycler by Simplehuman solves the problem by allowing you to have two recycle bins in a kitchen cabinet, and the clever ball bearing track means they glide in and out smoothly to allow you access to them. The unit includes two polypropylene buckets so you can separate your waste and they have a generous combined capacity of 35 litres. The unit costs £54.99 and comes with a free five year warranty.
Related: Heal's recycle bin set: separate in style | Ecopod brings recycling revolution to your kitchen
Animal welfare
If you're a fan of BBC's Gardener's World you may have seen this fabulous insect study centre already. Made from FSC timber the study centre has three viewing chambers. The top chamber has a solar attraction light with it's own storage batteries which comes on automatically at dusk and switches itself off at dawn. The light attracts moths, butterflies, lacewing and other flying bugs. The middle chamber has creepy crawly viewing tubes and the lower one has three interactive trays for bee nesting (don't worry, Red Mason Bees which pollinate fruit, vegetables and flowers and are non aggressive). All three chambers are easily accessible to allow you to provide food and to watch the insects without disturbing them. £41 from Wildlife World.
Related: Solar insect theatre | Insect Lab Clockwork Insects
Design & furniture
It's good to know I'm not the only person fed up with Ikea style, generic, flat-packed furniture which takes an eternity to assemble. Celery Furniture create sustainable and stylish furniture for children, and the clever designs, which use mortise and tenon joints, mean they are 100% hardware free. They also use materials which will not harm the environment, this Lullaboo Crib for example is available in bamboo and/or formaldehyde free MDF.
Related: Eco crib | TITAN hanging cradle
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Green News
The Roberts Tower in St Louis, Missouri will be the first high-rise building to be awarded a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design) Certification by the US Green Building Council.
The tower will be constructed with environmentally responsible and sustainable materials and designed to make significant energy savings of 50-70%. It will even have its own recycling program and feature energy efficient appliances.
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This month's Jane magazine features an inspiring Cubicle Refugee. Three years ago, Sarah Strauss was made redundant from her architecture firm. Since then she has set up her own design company Bigprototype.
Today, in addition to its standard design projects, the company works designing eco-friendly tropical homes in Puerto Rico. The designs are all intended to be as ecologically sound as possible. They are particularly concerned with not damaging the local habitat. The projects try to limit problems with run-off and create as little construction waste as possible.
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Food & drink
I remember eating at a Swiss restaurant and being served soup in a bowl made from bread. I really enjoyed both bread and soup, but I didn't think it was an idea that would take off. That's not the opinion of Sebastiano Oddi, a student at the University of Brighton, who has created an edible picnic container. The container comes apart to form two plates (more like very shallow bowls actually) with a handle at one side. You can eat all your picnic goodies from the plates, and then scoff them too! It's an idea to reduce waste, and presumably washing up! It's currently available in eight different flavours and can be sampled at the New Designers show, at the Business Design Centre in London between 5th and 15th July.
[via treehugger.com]
Related: Celery GMed into a literal straw
Arts & information
Bus shelters are certainly more exciting these days, with the introduction of solar powered timetables, and animated billboards, but if artist Nils Norman had his way they would also be spreading an important environmental message. For the current Global Cities exhibition at the Tate Modern he has created, among other things, a bus shelter with a conscience. Inside there are posters that, instead of promoting consumerism, give a warning of impending environmental disasters. They also give possible solutions to surviving a flood, making your own bio-diesel and surviving West Nile Virus! On the roof of the shelter is a wooden planter containing drought-resistant plants, such as agaves and arids, a stark reminder of how our gardens may look in the future if global warming continues. Unfortunately this bus shelter isn't going to be put onto our streets any time soon, infact after the exhibition it will be stripped back to it's former glory and given back to London Transport.
The Global Cities exhibition runs from 20th June to 27th August, and entry is free.
Related: More arts and information
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