Green Thing Blog

If you can't afford to shell out for some high priced speakers, try egg-sperimenting with making your own.

If you think eggshell speakers are Bordaeuxing on the insane, here's a good raison to stop whining about it - turn some empty vino jugs into a booming surround sound system instead...

Or turn a couple of IKEA bowls into a hanging-disco-ball-of-death-metal-blasting-flat-packed-weirdness like this... (and then tell me what terrible IKEA puns I could've used)

Finally, if you're a snow it all who likes taking the piste (if you get my drift), then get shoveling and make yourself a 20,000-watt megaphone like this....

<img src=" http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/02/2-13-07-snow_horn.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="330" />

[Found on engadget thanks to Danusiskin]

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You know those disclaimers that turn up on the bottom of emails: "Paper doesn't grow on trees. Please think before you print this email."? Well Ad agency BBH decided the world needed something much more imaginative and effective, so they came up with the i.Saw.

This spoof device - the world's first USB-powered chainsaw - led users to a downloadable app which makes a loud, angry tree-cutting noise every time you're about to print. It acts like an alarm-clock conscience on your PC to remind you to think before you print.

It's a great example of something that spreads online by being both interesting and useful. It's interesting as a piece of media (the spoof iSaw site got 1.5m visits, was written up in Wired and Gizmondo and created a buzz on Twitter and Reddit and the like) and also useful as a piece of software - it really does force you to think about what you're printing and whether you really need to.

The concept is brilliant, although in reality it does get a wee bit annoying and seems to be triggered by commands other than 'Cmd P', so the novelty does wear off a bit (although apprently this is a bug that's being fixed).

That said it's still clever, witty and ingenious and I wish we'd thought of it ;-) And the more computers its on, the more paper that gets saved - so download it here and spread the word.

[Spotted on BBH Labs via Mel Exon]

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A great idea for keeping food out of landfill. The websites Nearly Out of Date and Approved Food & Drink rescue food and other consumables whose ‘best before' or ‘use-by' dates are coming up, and offers them to customers at discounted prices. Great if you're shopping on a budget and, given the mountain of food that supermarkets and other retailers chuck out every year, a fantastic way of reducing waste and helping the planet.

Been Using Things Up? Tell us how.

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We've posted about some of the inspiring, creative ways to re-use ad billboards before. We're glad to add a new one to the list...

Artecnica has been pioneering sustainable design for years re-using existing or recycled materials. (What Green Thing calls All-Consuming what you have or doing the Recycled/Reborn thing to create sustainable new things).

Artecnica's new collection was commissioned by ad agency TBWA/Chiat Day [disclaimer: I work part-time for Agency.com which is part of the TBWA network) who asked them to turn old billboards into new products. Two years of design later these first two commercial goods in the 'billboard collection' have just been unveiled.

Here are some bags made from the recycled plastic of old billboards. A large sheet is cut into a pattern of slits becomeing an expandable bag which can carry a 33 lbs load (or stored flat or folded).

The second product is an envelope-type carrying case made from billboards and sustainable cork.

[Spotted on Fast Company]

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Donate them to the Finish World Mobile Phone Throwing Championships. I kid you not. The phone-tossing action starts about a minute into the this video.

[Found via The Guardian].

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