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Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch". Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been "largely ignored" in the Atlantic. She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the......read more
For a long time, Senegalese-French furniture designer Bibi Seck, one half of product design duo Birsel + Seck, wanted to produce local furniture in Senegal. But it wasn't until he linked up with Transtech, a maker of cisterns and septic tanks using recycled plastic, that the project became feasible. The fruit of the partnership is the Taboo Collection of furniture, made in Dakar,......read more
Nebraska designer Garth Britzman has made what may be one of the coolest recycling projects we've ever seen. Britzman collected 1,500 plastic pop bottles and partially filled them with colored liquid to create an amazing, wave-like parking canopy for his car. Called (POP)culture, the stunning installation seeks "to stimulate creative alternatives for recycling and reusing materials." More info......read more
In Rio de Janeiro, where world leaders are meeting for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), two gigantic fish are rising from Botafogo Beach. The public art installation has been created entirely from discarded plastic bottles collected on and around the beach. By day, the plastic sculptures shimmer in the sun, against the gorgeous backdrop of Rio's mountains. By night, the big......read more
In a strong move for the marine conservation movement, the government of the Bahamas has banned commercial fishing for sharks, as well as selling, exporting, or importing shark meat. The archipelago has one of the most diverse and healthiest shark populations in the world, and this move will ensure a healthy future for the often maligned creatures. Not only is it a good move from a conservation......read more
They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades. Nicholas Stern estimated that capping climate change would cost around 1% of global GDP, while sitting back and letting it hit us would cost between 5 and 20%. One per cent of GDP is, at the moment, $630bn. By March 2009, Bloomberg has revealed, the US Federal Reserve had committed $7.77 trillion to......read more
After painstakingly stripping away layers of wall paint, an art gallery in Berlin has uncovered a 2003 piece by Banksy, the much-ballyhooed street art pranskter whose politically-charged stencil work now sells for six figures. The piece, which features five soldiers with angel wings and smiley faces, was revealed when the wall was stripped away as part of an installation by Brad Downey, a......read more
Is it just us or are teens doing more and more impressive stuff these days? 19-year-old Dutch university student Boyan Slat adds to the youth movement with his ingenious Ocean Cleanup Array, a green tech concept aimed at addressing the immense problem of oceanic plastic pollution. Comprised of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms, is said to be capable of removing up to......read more
Entering Houston’s Rice University Art Gallery, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether you'd walked into some weird, icy landscape where all matter was negative. Made from nothing more than plastic sheeting and black hot glue, reverse of volume RG is the latest -- and largest -- of Yasuaki Onishi's "reverse of volume" series, in which the Japanese artist creates monumental forms that......read more
It's always a score when you discover that a stunning bit of design has tight eco credentials to boot. Such is the case with the colorful outdoor furniture creations of Loll Designs. The Duluth, Minnesota company crafts stylish and durable outdoor chairs, tables, benches, and accessories from post-consumer, industrial high-density polyethylene. What the hell is that, you ask? It's the same......read more
