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Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts

Angela Nocentini Creates Couture Made With Magis Adhesive Tape.




Angela Nocentini, a sculpture teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, is known for her fashions made with recycled trash and waste to emphasize her environmental concerns. To illustrate the use of tape as a reusable resource, she collaborated with eco-conscious Italian adhesive tape company Magis S.p.A. (not to be confused with Magis Design) to create these fashions using their products.


















At Magis the respect of the environment has always been one of their main concerns and they have been investing in new technologies with low environmental impact and in the use of renewable energies.

In their production they use highly recyclable materials such as polypropylene, paper, cartons and solvent-free adhesives as hot melt and acrylic water based emulsions.



About Magis
Magis, founded in 1983, was one of the first companies in coating polypropylene film with Hot Melt glue and to experiment with a form of printing called Sandwich, protected between the film and the adhesive. Thanks to these innovations, Magis has shortly become one of the leading companies in Italy, and soon after in the European and International market.

Magis is located in Cerreto Guidi on a production plant of more than 28.000 sqm.Thanks also to numerous investments, new machines and skilled personnel, Magis is able to guarantee the highest flexibility to all its customers and the best quality of the products. Nowadays Magis is one of the leading companies producing customized packaging materials and is ISO 9001:2008 certified.

original images courtesy of Magis, but have been highly altered in color, contrast and cropping by If It's Hip, It's Here


The Elio: An Eco-Friendly, Revolutionary 3-Wheeled Vehicle Hits The Road.




It's green, It's lean. It's got three wheels and can be ordered now. Introducing the Elio.




Founded in 2008 by Mr. Paul Elio, Elio Motors set out to provide affordable transportation to those commuters seeking an alternative while providing vital American jobs.

The result is a street legal three wheeled environmentally friendly vehicle that goes from 0-60 in under 9.6 seconds and gets 84 miles to the gallon. For students, the vehicle provides a safe and reliable means to commute around campus. For those families with mini-vans or SUV’s, Elio provides an efficient and economical way to get to and from work. The price-point of the vehicle ($6800 USD) allows Elio to be an addition to a family's fleet without adding any additional cost to an already stretched budget.



Features:
• 84 Miles per Gallon
It gets 84 miles to the gallon on the highway. That means you can go from Detroit to New York City on a tank of gas – or drive from Shreveport LA to Dallas and back – then back to Dallas again – and still have about 110 miles left before a refill.



• 8-Gallon Tank:
It can go 672 miles, or thereabouts, because it has an 8-gallon tank and 8X84=672. Of course, other factors will affect your mileage.



• Eco-Friendly:
It gets 84 MPG on the highway, but you’ll be doing your share of city driving, too. With its city rate of 49 MPG, you’ll be consuming only 1/3 of what the average American vehicle consumes.

• Transmission:
5-speed manual or automatic. And yes, it has a reverse gear.

• Power:
An inline, 3 cylinder, .9 liter, 55 HP, fuel-injected, SOHC gas-powered, liquid-cooled, automotive engine. Top speed is in excess of 100 MPH, and the 0-60 speed is under 9.6 seconds.



• Traction:
The engine is in the front and it is a front-wheel-drive vehicle. With a low center of gravity and weight towards the front, you’ll get great traction action – even in the snow.

• Suspension:
The Elio is built on an independent suspension with unequal length control arms, coil-over-spring and shock in the front and mono-shock with coil-over-spring and shock in the rear. The ground clearance is 5.75″ — similar to most of the passenger vehicles you see on the road today.

• Brakes:
3-wheel disc brakes with the Anti-Lock Braking System on 15″ wheels.



• Safety:
Each Elio comes equipped with a Safety Management System that includes three airbags – a reinforced roll-cage frame, Anti-Lock Braking System, and 50% larger crush zones than similar vehicles. Preliminary safety tests on computer models anticipate a 5-Star safety rating.

• Quiet:
The body panels are made of a composite (which is more sound deadening than steel) and attached to a tight, solid body that doesn’t have a lot of moving (read squeaky) parts. These two design features help keep outside noise from getting into the cockpit and getting in the way of your favorite tunes playing on our AM/FM radio (that’s standard).

• Space:
The trunk space will be at least 27″ x 14″ x 10″, enough for an airline carry-on bag or a golf bag with the rear seat down (47″+).



Exterior Specs:
Overall Length: 160.5″
Overall Height: 54.2″
Front Wheel Track: 66.8″ (center rim to center rim)
Wheelbase: 110″ (center of front wheels to center of rear wheel)



Interior Specs:
Headroom: Driver 39.8 Passenger 36.4 in
Seat width: Driver 20.6 Passenger 25.3 in
Interior Shoulder Width: 26.8 in
Front seat Legroom: 42.7 in
Rear seat Legroom: 33.1 in

Comfort:
Elio has been designed to fit 95% of all people, whether it be a 6’8″ former college basketball player, a 6’3″ 365 lb man or a 5’0″ petite woman.



American Made = American Jobs
It should come as no surprise that Elio will create a number of much-needed jobs for American workers. The company is estimating 1,500 jobs at their Shreveport, LA plant beginning in 2014.

Price:
It only costs $6,800. That’s about what you would pay for an outboard motor to power a rowboat.

Warranty:
The Elio comes standard with a 3 year/36000 mile warranty.



When you own an Elio, you’re not just a customer, you’re part of a family. So we’re not going to lure you in with that $6,800 low price, only to mention things like A/C and an AM/FM radio are extra. They’re not. You get those items plus heater, defrost, the three airbags, power windows and door lock, seat belts, tempered glass, and windshield wiper at no extra cost.


Learn more and/or pre-order the Elio here

Beautiful Creative Encourages You To Beautify Our Beaches For California's Coastal Cleanup Day.



above: a cropped version of the full poster

WHAT IS COASTAL CLEANUP DAY?
Every year, on the third Saturday in September, people join together at sites all over California to take part in the State's largest volunteer event, California Coastal Cleanup Day. In 2012, over 65,000 volunteers removed almost 770,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from California's beaches, lakes, and waterways.



Families, friends, coworkers, scout troops, school groups, service clubs, and individuals come together to celebrate and share their appreciation of California's fabulous coast and waterways.




The event is part of the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by the Ocean Conservancy, which is the largest volunteer event on the planet.

The Creative Promotional Work
To promote this annual event, posters and digital work are created yearly, much of it wonderful. This year's campaign is no exception. Created by Art Director Greg Coffin and Copywriter Mike Brenner under Creative Director Ron Lim, the posters and other promotional pieces have turned trash into a 'species' whose extinction we need to bring about.

Lovely depictions of various culprits (cigarette butts, lids and/or caps and broken bottles) are rendered in watercolors and given faux Latin names in three large format posters exclaiming "Let's Make Trash Extinct":





In addition to the above posters, they've created a daily digital social media campaign that is a 29 day countdown to the event. Each day an individual piece of trash encouraging you to be part of the solution appears along with the number of days left until the event on the California Coast's official Facebook page. One example is shown below and several more are scattered throughout this post.


above: The plastic bottle cap (Screwtopia forsakus) is a small top that unscrews from assorted beverages. If your city cannot recycle #5 plastic, it should be placed in the trash. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org

WHY ARE BEACH CLEANUPS IMPORTANT?
Vast amounts of plastic debris litter the world's oceans causing all manner of harm, and most of this debris comes from land. Our beaches are collecting spots for trash from city streets and highways. Trash travels - via inland waterways, storm drains, sewers, and on the wind, and eventually ends up on the coast. If not removed, this debris will end up in the ocean. Beach cleanups are a last line of defense - to prevent debris from causing harm to our oceans, to wildlife, to our coastal economies, and even to beach-goers.


above: The Aluminum Can Pull-Tab, Fliptopis familiaris, is a close relative of the Screwtopis familiaris. Both come from the tops of the family Briny Vessels and can be easily recycled when disposed of properly. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org

TRASHING CALIFORNIA'S BEACHES
Californian’s love their coast and ocean — nine out of ten will visit the beach at least once this year. When they arrive at the beach, they are finding a lot more than sand and surf. During a recent summer, Orange County collected enough garbage from six miles of beach to fill ten garbage trucks full of trash every week, at a cost to taxpayers of $350,000. Other California counties spend even more.


above: Javus squashticus, commonly known as the coffee cup lid, hot tea lid, or cappuccino cover is a species of rural lidlings that never really “go away.” They break apart and can leach toxins into food under changes in heat. Ask yourself if you really need that lid. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org

In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners, dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. signed onto MARPOL Annex V, joining 64 other countries that signed the international protocol that regulates ocean dumping and made it illegal to dump plastic into the ocean. Laws like MARPOL have reduced the amount of trash on our beaches and in our ocean. Even so, plastic pollution is still a major problem. A recent study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile in the North Pacific Central Gyre, which serves as a natural eddy system to concentrate material.1 Results of more than 10 years of volunteer beach cleanup data indicate that 60 to 80 percent of beach debris comes from land-based sources. And debris in the marine environment means hazards for animals and humans. Plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44 percent of all sea bird species, and 43 percent of marine mammal species.2
1 Moore, C. J., S. L. Moore, M. K. Leecaster, and S. B. Weisberg, 2001. A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre. In: Marine Pollution Bulletin 42, 1297-1300. 2 Laist, D. W., 1997. Impacts of marine debris: entanglement of marine life in marine debris including a comprehensive list of species with entanglement and ingestion records. In: Coe, J. M. and D. B. Rogers (Eds.), Marine Debris -- Sources, Impacts and Solutions. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 99-139

HOW MARINE DEBRIS HARMS WILDLIFE
Entanglement: Common items like fishing line, strapping bands and six-pack rings can hamper the mobility of marine animals. Once entangled, animals have trouble eating, breathing or swimming, all of which can have fatal results. Plastics take hundreds of years to breakdown and may continue to trap and kill animals year after year.


above: The 6-pack soda holder (Seagullus strangularum) is a species of plastic trash in the Plasticus tangularus family. Marine animals get tangled in them easily. Remember to cut them up before properly disposing of them. Or better yet, buy soda cans packaged in a cardboard box. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org

Ingestion: Birds, fish and mammals often mistake plastic for food. Some birds even feed it to their young. With plastic filling their stomachs, animals have a false feeling of being full, and may die of starvation. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Even gray whales have been found dead with plastic bags and sheeting in their stomachs.


above: The plastic bag (Grocerus gatheramus), also referred to as a shopping bag, is the most commonly found member of the Plasticus tangularus family. They photodegrade, or break down into smaller pieces which eventually enter the food web when animals ingest them. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org

HOW MARINE DEBRIS HARMS PEOPLE:
Beachgoers can cut themselves on glass and metal left on the beach. Marine debris also endangers the safety and livelihood of fishermen and recreational boaters. Nets and monofilament fishing line can obstruct propellers and plastic sheeting and bags can block cooling intakes. Such damage is hazardous and costly in terms of repair and lost fishing time. In one Oregon port, a survey revealed that 58 percent of fishermen had experienced equipment damage due to marine debris. Their average repair cost was $2,725.


above: The broken bottle, Cuttano yourfootae, is the result of a mixture between the originating species Kickonme andstubto and a sharp rock. Glass bottles are readily recyclable but broken glass can harm both people and wildlife. Find out how to be part of the solution at www.coastalcleanupday.org



Find a Cleanup:
Cleanups take place along bays, creeks, rivers, highways, and the coast at more than 800 locations throughout California.  Use the map or list of California counties on this page to find your cleanup site and then contact the local coordinator.

If there is no cleanup scheduled in your area, you can volunteer to set one up, just call (800) COAST-4U or e-mail coast4u@coastal.ca.gov.


Register here to join the California Coastal Clean Up.

The Aquafarm Is A Self-Cleaning Fish Tank And Herb Garden In One.




Aquafarm is an Aquaponics Garden from Back to the Roots, a company founded by Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora during their last semester at UC Berkeley in 2009.


above: Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora of Back To The Roots.


The second product offered from Back To The Roots (the first was a grow-your-own mushroom kit), Aquafarm was successfully funded via Kickstarter in December of 2012.

So, What Is It?
The tabletop eco-system uses the fish waste to naturally fertilize the plants above. In turn, the plants clean the water for your pet fish.





The Aquafarm includes natural aquatic supplies from Home Grown Ponics and organic seeds from Seeds of Change.

What's Happening Inside?



The fish, they poo and they pee, and all that waste-water gets broken down by beneficial bacteria into nutrients.



The waste-water from the fish is then pumped up & upcycled as an awesome organic fertilizer for the plants. The plants take up the nutrients and, at the same time, clean the water which then falls back down for the fish.



There is no soil - the plants are growing just on rocks - all the nutrients coming from the fish (no need for any artificial fertilizers - it's all organic)

There is no need to clean the water because of the plants - it's a self-cleaning fish tank!

What Can I Grow?


Choose from a variety of fresh produce, including spinach, baby greens, oregano, beans, basil, mint, parsley & thyme.

What Kind of Fish?

above: various types of Betta Fish.

You can pick from a ton of different types of fish that will work great in the system - including the Betta fish pictured in their system in this post.

On June 7th of this year, they finally shipped the first one. Below is a video of Alejandro and Nikhil giving us a peek into the production:



Aquafarm, The Self-Cleaning Fish Tank that Grows Food


• Self-cleaning fish tank that grows food.
• Fish waste feeds the plants. Plants clean the water.
• Includes everything you need to get started as well as organic seeds and a discount     coupon for a Betta fish.
• Sleek and attractive design with 3-gallon capacity.
• Perfect for your kitchen or classroom. Also makes a great gift.
• Designed and manufactured in California

Where Can I Get One?
The Aquafarm retails for $59.99 and can be purchased here

Please donate

C'mon people, it's only a dollar.