Plastics are evil, big villians in every environment story. They are made from fossil fuels, refuse to biodegrade for centuries, and the modern lifestyle ensures that mountains of plastic are produced every year. Nearly 150 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and 99% of that is made from fossil fuels. There are plant based plastics like PLA out there, and though this one is made from corn, it still requires fossil fuels at various levels, and doesn’t really compost easily. Scientists at Imperial College London appear to have made this wasteful product a bit sweeter.
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Ever feel disgusted by the number of disposable items we consume everyday? Especially ones made from plastic, a material that is most enduring? NYC-based design agency MSLK shares your pain and has created a series of eco-art installations to help less conscientious individuals visualize the consequences of our consumption.

MSLK’s latest installation “Watershed” consists of 1,500 disposed plastic water bottles — a visual representation of one second of U.S. consumption.

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Recycling has always been a hot topic and despite our best efforts, there are still some people who are just too lazy to do their bit for the environment. Believe it or not, more than 80% of plastic bottles are left unrecycled, and to make matters worse, research has shown that people are suspending their recycling habits even further in the wake of the recent economic downturn.

So how can we be greener with our used plastic bottles? Nowadays, plastic containers can be broken down and re-fashioned into a vast array of goods, ranging from dress clothes to playground equipment, cell phones to car paneling, and fleece to funky chairs. Plastic recycling also generates considerable savings in greenhouse gases, water and transportation.

And if you think this is impressive, just look at what these ingenious people have come up with using plastic recycling:

Funky Recycled Christmas Decorations

This snap of a funky Christmas tree decoration, creatively constructed from shredded plastic bottles, was taken at Tanglin Mall in Singapore. With the festive season looming – why not have a go yourself?

Recycled Bottle Screen

Serving more than just a decorative purpose, this wall created from plastic drinks bottles is part of a natural sewage treatment area in Scotland, created for the ‘Earthship Fife’ project. The venue houses a number of renewable energy and alternative building demonstration projects, as well as a greenhouse made in the same way.

Plastic Bottle Armor Suit

Calling all you urban ninjas out there – this is not your average suit of armour. Urban clothing and accessories designer, Kosuke Tsumura, created this inventive ensemble by cutting up PET plastic bottles and sewing the pieces back together with translucent nylon thread. Inspired!

The Original Plastic Bottle Boat

Resourceful Argentinean fishermen have fashioned this seaworthy vessel entirely out of recycled material, using plastic bottles to help keep it afloat.

Spiral Island: The Floating Island Made from Plastic Bottles

And for the ultimate in recycling chic, why not create an island made from plastic bottles?! British eco-pioneer, Richart Sowa, set out to construct his own artificial ‘Spiral Island’ in 1998 using nets containing discarded plastic bottles. Floating in the Caribbean, the mass boasted an impressive two-storey house, solar oven, composting toilet and three beaches, before being destroyed by Hurricane Emily in 2005.

Thanks to these resourceful eco-warriors, the hoards of plastic waste currently floating in our oceans is being slowly but surely reduced. The results prove that plastic can indeed be fantastic – who thought plastic recycling could be so cool?

Written in association with our plastic recycling experts.

Imagine if all the world’s rivers and lakes were no longer filled with marine life but with plastic bottles, containers and packaging instead.

The damaging effect to wildlife and marine eco- systems throughout the world would be catastrophic, resulting in less and less plant life being able to grow, CO2 emissions rising and our planet would literally be chocking on its own plastic waste.

Yet this isn’t something that is a million years from now, our Earth’s demise is happening now with over 150 billion tonnes of plastic being dumped into the ocean by the worldwide fishing industry alone. But it is also something that we can combat now, quite easily, simply by recycling.

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A U.S. company, Solarmer, is developing plastic solar cells for portable electronic devices. Technology for the project was invented at the University of Chicago.  A commercial-grade prototype will be ready later this year, said the vice president of IP development and strategic alliances at Solarmer.

The prototype measures eight square inches (50 square centimeters) and is expected to achieve 8 percent efficiency with a lifetime of at least three years.  New materials with higher efficiencies are considered a key in the industry. Plastic solar cells are behind in terms of the efficiency … for now.

The invention is a new semiconductor material called PTB1. The material converts sunlight into electricity. The active layer of PTB1 is a mere 100 nanometers thick. The width is approximately 1,000 atoms. Synthesizing the material even in very small amounts is a time-consuming, multi-step process.

The University of Chicago licensed the patent rights to the technology to Solarmer last year in September.

Solarmer will sponsor research at the university. The advantage of this technology – simple, says the pair.

We like animals here at GP. We don’t like when they are mistreated, however. And, we don’t like when they pollute the place! Some 250,000 blue rubber ducks cooperated on a world record this year for the most plastic ducks in one place. Seriously.

Does somebody really keep track of how many rubber ducks get together in one place from time to time? Did somebody actually count the ducks? One little rubber ducky, two little rubber duckies, three little rubber duckies ….

The rubber ducks were tossed into the river by the Hampton Court Palace as part of the Great British Duck Race. The Brits need to find something else to do. The ducks are blue because last year people threw their own yellow duckies in uninvited.

There is a 2 pound entry fee and a 10,000 pound first prize for the ducky who floats the fastest. The money raised went to charity. Perhaps the start of this race can be traced back to 1992 when 29,000 rubber ducks fell overboard from a boat in the Pacific Ocean and floated about for some 15 years.

Listen and you can hear some Brits saying, “My rubber ducky is faster than yours.”

BTW, who is going to clean up this mess?

 

Beijing has a national ban on the use of ultra-thin plastic bags as part of its “habit revolution.” The until now free super-thin plastic bags have been replaced by thick plastic bags that must be bought for about ¥10 ($1.50). Or, shoppers can bring their snazzy green tote bags. Because it is so hard to determine the thickness of a bag with the naked eye, China’s Ministry of Commerce has instigated the use of “checkers” (not the game) to determine a bag’s thickness.

We wonder, can they really measure the thinness of a bag? In any event, this is a big step in not being wasteful. Especially when there are tens of millions of people not using umpteen plastic bags a day. Add to Beijing southwest China’s Yunnan province will also ban plastic bags beginning January 1, 2009. Good job, China!

“Hey you! You with that plastic bag. Bring it over here so I can use my handy dandy plastic bag thickness checking micrometer.”

“Uh, okay.”

“Yo, dude. This bag is too thick. You get a verbal warning. Next time, it’s the lethal injection van for you.”

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There is a plastic bags invasion that I am sure you’re aware of. It happens where you live, where I live so it’s a widely spread disease that we doesn’t seem to be able to fight with. Other than the radical solutions I’ve heard so far that forbids supermarkets from offering their customers plastic bags, nothing was as funny as creating a chair out of them.

Designed by Kitsch-U-Like the recycled carrier bag chair needs about 2,000 plastic bags stuffed inside that you will have to manually fill. It sells for £75.00 (about $151) and if you will build your own the self reward of putting so many plastic bags off the streets would be priceless.

You will see that this rubbish piece of furniture is actually a very comfortable chair that all your friends will want to stay on. Let us know if you happen to own one.

via Gizmodo