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Recycling Genius: Shrunken Plastic Bottles Replace Furniture Joints

28 Jan

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

joining-bottles-main

Assembling furniture DIY-style, without the skills, tools or fasteners used to produce conventional joints, becomes remarkably easy with shrink-wrapped pieces of discarded plastic bottles. While joinery is certainly an art – especially the complex forms found in Japanese furniture making – traditional methods aren’t necessarily accessible to anyone. This new project, Joining Bottles, offers a way to assemble functional furniture in minutes with trash and a heat gun.

shrunken-joints-4

Created by product designer Micaella Pedros, ‘Joining Bottles’ aims to provide a model for producing useful objects using materials that are affordable and widely available. A pile of junk sitting on a curb suddenly becomes valuable in a new way, even if it’s a seemingly irreparable chair and a bin full of materials headed to the recycling plant.

shrunken-joins-2

joining-bottles-4

The individual pieces created for a series show how adaptable the concept can be. Use clear bottles if you want the joints to be unobtrusive, or colored bottles to highlight the ingenuity of the system. Wood waste of all kinds, including fallen branches, is assembled into stools, tables, shelves and other objects.

shrunken-joints-3

“The different types of wood and plastic bottles available are dictating the final aspect and composition of the work,” say the creators. “In that sense, a unique conversation is engaged within each piece. It creates more space for randomness and spontaneity, in other words, for human attributes in the creative process.”

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Pairing Wine & Literature: Italian ‘Book Bottles’ Wrapped With Short Stories

14 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

italian-book-bottle-design

Curling up with a glass of wine with a story has never been easier thanks to Librottiglia, a project that wraps printed pages around bottles of Italian reds and whites.

wine-wrapped-books

Each wine is paired with a specifically selected literary short intended to match the characteristics of the vintage with an appropriate genre and narrative. Drinkers are encouraged to pour a glass then pour over the pages of a unique tale.

Designed by Reverse Innovation for the Matteo Correggia winery in Italy, each 375-ML bottle is good for two glasses and an absorbing literary adventure. The covers in each case double as both book titles as well as wine labels and descriptions.

booke-on-a-bottle

A piece of twine wraps the book to each bottle while the words themselves are printed on a thick paper stock to round out the stylized packaging. Stories include The Frog in the Belly, I Love You Forget Me and others by journalists, humorists and mystery writers.

wine-label-book-twine

book-wrapped-375-ml

“Today we read books on computers, tablets and mobile phones,” note the creators. “Why not on a bottle of wine?” they ask. “After years of discussion about analogue vs. digital, we want to propose an alternative: oenological” (meaning: related to the cultivation and study of wine).

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Plastic Village: Tropical Housing Estate Built from 1MM Recycled Bottles

25 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

plastic-bottle-architecture

At a glance, it would be impossible to guess that the finished houses in Panama’s Plastic Bottle Village featured walls packed with recycled drinking containers. What started as a recycling initiative by a expat Canadian entrepreneur has become an architectural adventure that will ultimately reuse over a million plastic bottles.

plastic-bottle-finishing

Since 2012, tens of thousands of bottles have been brought to the growing town to make buildings. These are stacked in steel cages with stones to fill in gaps and provide rigidity. Cement plaster covers the structures inside and out, making them appear like solid concrete or finished stucco.

The bottles, meanwhile, provide insulation while allowing airflow, keeping interiors in the hot climate a full 17 degrees cooler than the ambient outdoors.

plastic-bottle-castle

Multiple bottle-based houses already constructed on nearly 100 acres of lush tropical jungle land purchased for the Plastic Bottle Village, which will eventually be home to over 100 such structures. Also in the works: a small public park, retail operation and yoga pavilion.

plastic-bottle-complete

The steel-framed structures provide a balance of strength and flexibility, helping them stand up and support roofs but also to resist earthquakes. The Plastic Bottle Village is about more than just one place, too: its founder is educating others about how to build with this cheap and ubiquitous material that many see simply as waste.

plastic-bottle-cage

caged-bottle-concrete

The project puts consumption in context: “Average humans can consume 15 or more drinks in plastic bottles a month. If you were born after 1978, and live until 80 years old, you will leave behind a minimum of 14,400 plastic bottles on this planet.”

“These bottles take hundreds of years to break down into tiny pieces of plastic, never to completely disappear. Most of the waste is consumed by fish and birds, which has shortened their lifespans greatly.”

plastic-bottle-wall

It also illustrates the potential offsets: “If you live in a two story plastic bottle house of 100 square meters or 1,000 square feet per floor, then your house will be built reusing 14,000 plastic bottles. These recycled bottles could neutralize the negative effect of your passage on this planet, and move closer to leaving only your footprints.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Buildings in Bottles: Crafty Test-Tube Architectural Models

03 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

test tube architecture

A tiny twist on miniature architecture turns simply-crafted models into hovering micro-habitats, suspended in test tubes like the science experiment of some mad architect.

test tube stack buildings

test tube environment

Micro Matter is an ongoing project series by Rosa de Jong, an artist and designer from Amsterdam who uses both manufactured materials (paper and cardboard) as well as natural ones (sticks and moss) to shape small worlds enclosed in glass.

test tube crafting

test tube skyscraper

The scenarios range from partial (the tops of skyscrapers poking above the clouds) to complete (homes resting on floating mountaintops), and vary in structural plausibility as well, bringing to mind less-controlled urban environments in places like Mexico, where ingenuity often trumps order.

test tube miniature mountain

test tube floating

Each creation also comes with a behind-the-scenes look at its construction, including both the materials employed and the tools used to cut the pieces apart and assemble them into new forms.

test tube workspace

test tube water tower

test tube glass sculpture

The results strike a balance between everyday believability – crooked walls and as-needed staircases – and utter fantasy, combining the rigor of a ship-in-a-bottle with the imagination of a science fiction artist.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Epson introduces EcoTank printer range with two years of ink and low-cost refill bottles

04 Sep

That inkjet printer ink costs more than champagne is the frequent moan of anyone who has to replace their cartridges. Take heart though, as Epson has launched a range of printers called EcoTank that it claims will help users save 70% on home printing. The five new machines come with what Epson says is enough ink to last two years, and once empty the tanks can be refilled from a bottle instead of being replaced. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Boxed Water is Better: Paper Packaging Beats Plastic Bottles

06 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

boxed water image

The brand tells you what it is in bold minimalist script: better, but more specifically, its packaging is better than the dominant plastic bottle alternative – a square peg for what product designers have long assumed was a round hole.

boxed water versus bottles

Aside from the (cardboard carton) material itself being more sustainable, the trick is in the shipping: a single truck packed with pallets of flat-pack water boxes means 25 fewer trucks than shipping plastic bottles to a bottling plant.

boxed water is better

Plastic bottles not only take up more space when filled (thanks to their rounded shape), but far more space when empty in the first place. They are also being banned in some cities, which means more market opportunity for companies like Boxed Water Is Better.

boxed water on shelves

The recyclable packages also stand out on the shelves – white cartons and black type stacked alongside complex logos and variegated shapes of their plastic relatives.

boxed water better

Some will still question the need for conveniently-packaged water altogether, and in a perfect world (perhaps someday) we would all use reusable containers, but for now this seems like a solid (or liquid) step in the right direction. Meanwhile, the company helps customers go green indirectly as well, planting two trees for each picture of their product posted – not bad marketing, either.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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16 Cap Redesigns Give 2nd Lives to 40,000 Used Cola Bottles

06 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

coke bottle cap reuse

Aimed at promoting the creative reuse of plastic bottles, Coca-Cola has launched a project to give away caps that convert discarded drink containers to fun and practical alternative functions.

These so-called Second Lives adapters can turn waste vessels into everything from bubble blowers and squirt guns to night lights, shampoo dispensers, pencil sharpeners, paintbrushes and water-filled weights.

coke cap guerrilla marketing

The plan, hatched by Ogilvy & Mather China, is to distribute these caps for free in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, with the company encouraging people to take off the Coke labels to avoid confusion. The larger idea is to inspire alternative uses for old plastic bottles, getting people to think outside of the box about what is disposable and what could, in fact, have some sort of second life waiting within it.

coke cap alternative examples

“We are always looking for better solutions to reduce the use of plastic and increase recycling around the world,” said Leonardo O’Grady, ASEAN Director Integrated Marketing Communications, Coca-Cola. “The variety of our ‘2nd Lives’ caps shows that there are many creative ways to re-use plastic simply and practically, and also supports our global sustainability program.”

second lives cola project

The project was piloted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in March, with an expected 40,000 bottle caps to be gifted throughout the country this year. The campaign is set to launch in Thailand and Indonesia at a later date. Still, it is worth wondering whether adding more plastic to the world is worthwhile. As neat as some of these designs are, will they ultimately reduce waste or contribute to it?

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

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Liters of Light: DIY Solar from Used Bottles, Bleach & Water

28 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

liters of light roofs

Now setting its sights on a million homes, the organization behind this remarkably cheap approach to solar home lighting has already transformed the lives of thousands who were previously living in the dark.

liter of light roof

Installed in the metal roofs of windowless shacks, bottles of water help spread incoming light while the bleach keeps each bottle clean and clear, resulting in an output equivalent to that of a 60-watt bulb.

liter light project roof

These light bottles reduce the fire danger posed by poor electrical connections, cuts down on the cost of electric lighting and encourages recycling at the same time.

liter of light bottle

But a big part of the brilliance of the endeavor, pardon the pun, is in the simplicity of installation: effectively anyone can scavenge the major materials involved and teach others how to put them in place.

liter light construction steps

liters of light project installation

A Liter of Light grew out of an idea by Alfredo Moser from Brazil, enhanced by MIT students and aimed at addressing a problem facing millions in the Philippines: the absolute absence of natural light in their often-informal dwellings. Their latest goal is to raise funds to install these light bottles in homes across Manila.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Glassless Bottles: Ice Beverage Containers Keep Cola Cool

02 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

ice coke bottle design

No amount of insulation can hope to keep your beverage quite as cold as a bottle made entirely out of ice, as found in this limited-edition container design from a marketing firm working for Coca Cola.

Ogilvy & Mather of Bogota developed this entirely-iced bottle concept as a summer-worthy marketing method for Coke, currently released in Columbia and coming soon to Argentina, both places where hot summer weather packs a particularly hard punch.

ice melting coke glass

A simple label is wrapped around the frozen containers as the drink is poured and delivered. The bottle can then be left on the beach, thrown in the ocean or remain anywhere the remaining water (and sugar) can safely drain, keeping the process as mess-free as possible.

cool ice bottle design

Since these icey vessels dissipate on their own when you are done, leaving only a rubber-band bracelet behind, which means not having to worry as much about where and how to recycle your glassless bottles.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

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Bottle & Sell It: 14 Designer Bottles that Break the Mold

17 Apr

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Designer Bottles Main

Most companies are primarily concerned with price when it comes to beverage and liquid product packaging, but what if designers were given free reign to tweak the standard designs so they’re more user-friendly? These 14 packaging design concepts solve annoyances like caps that are difficult to open, bottle shapes that force you to crane your neck to drink and the frustrating inability to reach those last drops of product in the bottom of a soap bottle.

Soft Hanging Soap and Shampoo Bottles

Designer Bottles Soft Hanging

Soft bottles with suction cups to attach them to the shower walls eliminate all the clutter that various toiletries can create in the bathroom. These bottles are made from cornstarch vinyl, so they’re easy to squeeze, and making them transparent may help distinguish between different types of products stored inside.

Easy Drink

Designer Bottles Easy Drink 1

This simple change in the standard water bottle design seems so obvious, it’s amazing that it hasn’t been implemented already. Moving the mouth of the bottle from the top to a 45-degree angle makes it much easier to drink and re-fill. No more craning your neck to get those last drops.

Dumbbell Bottle

Designer Bottles Dumbbell 2

Since you’re probably carrying a water bottle or sports drink while working out anyway, why not make it do more? The Dumbbell sports drink bottle won’t exactly get you ripped at just .5kg (1.1 pounds), but you could always fill it with something heavier when the drink is gone.

EasyOpen Tab-Pull Bottle Cap

Designer Bottles EasyOpen

Sometimes you’re caught without a bottle opener, and using your teeth isn’t exactly a good idea unless you’re willing to part with them. What if bottle caps had little easy-pull tabs on them? The ‘EasyOpen’ concept would certainly do what the name suggests.

Aqua Jar Turns Bottles into Pitchers

Designer Bottles Aqua Jar

The Aqua Jar by GH Lab extends the life of a plastic bottle by turning it into an easy-pour pitcher. It’s made from biodegradable and recyclable plastic, and fits the universal coil of any plastic bottle.

Eco Coke

Designer Bottles Eco Coke

Designer Bottles Eco Coke 2

“Same classic design, just greener,” says Andrew Kim, designer of the Eco Coke bottle. So what makes it different – and superior – to the current bottle design? Aside from being 100% plant-based, this bottle is also collapsible, making it easier to keep it on hand until a recycling bin is nearby. Since it has a smaller footprint, space for nearly two additional bottles is recovered within standard boxes.

Retap

Designer Bottles Retap

While some people will reuse plastic bottles a few times, they’re awkward to clean, and can leach chemicals into the water over time. Glass is safer – and nicer-looking. Retap is a designer water bottle concept that’s easily refillable, without any sharp corners to make cleaning difficult.

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Bottle Sell It 14 Designer Bottles That Break The Mold

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘bottles’

Recycling Genius: Shrunken Plastic Bottles Replace Furniture Joints

Pairing Wine & Literature: Italian ‘Book Bottles’ Wrapped With Short Stories

Plastic Village: Tropical Housing Estate Built from 1MM Recycled Bottles

Buildings in Bottles: Crafty Test-Tube Architectural Models

Epson introduces EcoTank printer range with two years of ink and low-cost refill bottles

Boxed Water is Better: Paper Packaging Beats Plastic Bottles

16 Cap Redesigns Give 2nd Lives to 40,000 Used Cola Bottles

Liters of Light: DIY Solar from Used Bottles, Bleach & Water

Glassless Bottles: Ice Beverage Containers Keep Cola Cool