UPCYCLING: Stunning Bowls Made From Plastic Water Bottles.

UPCYCLING: Stunning Bowls Made From Plastic Water Bottles.

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Artist Gülnur Özdağlar creates elegant and unusual looking bowls transformed from PET bottles. She calls this process "upcycling". Her aim is to substitute with labor and artistic value the characteristics that the material loses during transformation, thereby obtaining a product of higher value. The collection is named Tertium Non Data (translated from Latin means: the third is not given) and is an alchemic term which refers to the process of combining two disparate elements to create a new, third element.



In this case the new, third element is a collection of diaphanous, attractive tabletop bowls that resemble organic creatures like jellyfish and sea anemones.




The elegant perforated and ornate bowls are created from a regular PET* water bottles. What looks like a flower at the base of the bowls, is the indent from the base of the bottle. If the bottles have a bluish tine, the formed bowls do as well.



Gulnar delicately heats and forms the edges of the bowl to create undulating forms and embellishments like flowers and petals.



With various perforations, cut shapes and added petals, she has managed to create numerous variations, like the ones shown below.











The artist's tools:


The bowls can be used as pet bowls, storage containers, jewelry holders or just as lovely objet d'art. She also makes upcycled jewelry as well.

*PET is Polyethylene Terephthalate, which is a thermoplastic polymer. It can be re-formed by heating. After heating process, it becomes more stiff, rigid, durable and glassy. It becomes even stronger and crystallized when perforated.


above: artist Gülnur Özdağlar with her daughters.

Gülnur Özdağlar studied architecture at the Middle East Technical University and has been active as an architect since she graduated in 1986. She has participated in architectural design competitions, together with various groups, and many of her designs have been recognized with prizes.In addition to being active as an architect, she has also worked in the graphic design and photography fields, and many of these projects have been published in foreign countries in magazines and books. She has received prizes in international competitions of digital art.

•Her website
•Her blog
•Learn to make your own bowls from PET bottles with her "how to guide" on Instructables
•Buy her jewelry or bowls and more at her etsy store

How Many Cities Have a Ban on Plastic Bags?

It's probably more than you think.

 By Rachel Cernansky

 

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

We all know how terrible plastic bags are for the environment—they choke wildlife, they don't break down in landfills (or in oceans), they add to our demand for oil, and they aren't easy to recycle, which is the biggest reason why 90 percent of plastic bags in the U.S. are not recycled.

Yet an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year—380 billion of those in the U.S.—and governments have been slow-moving at best to do anything about them.
According to Salon, a study a few years ago "found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they've been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It's equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil."
But things are finally starting to pick up. Here's a quick look at a few spots around the world that have banned plastic bags, or at least placed a tax on their use.
U.S.
In California, the ban started in San Francisco in select stores; if pending legislation goes through, it could soon expand to all stores not only in the city, but in the entire state.
A similar ban exists in coastal North Carolina and was recently passed in Portland.
England 
In 2007, Modbury became the first town to ban the plastic bag in Britain, where 13 billion plastic bags are given away every year. If customers forget to bring their own, reports the Times Online, "a range of bags made of recycled cotton with organic and fairtrade certification will be available from £1.50 to £3.95 and cheaper paper and biodegradeable cornstarch bags will cost 5p and 10p."
Other cities have followed suit, some just a few months ago, and there are efforts to make London plastic bag-free by the time the Olympics come around in 2010. According to the Daily Mail, "Londoners use 1.6billion plastic bags a year - for an average of just 20 minutes per bag."
Mexico
Mexico City adopted a ban last summer—the second major city in the western hemisphere to do so.
India
India seems to be taking the lead in bans on plastic bags, although enforcement is sometimes questionable. Cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Karwar, Tirumala, Vasco, Rajasthan all have a ban on the bag.
Burma
A ban went into effect (with little notice) in Rangoon late last year. In neighboring China, the use of plastic bags is restricted.
Bangladesh
Plastic bags have been banned in Bangladesh since 2002, after being found to be responsible for the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged most of the country.
Rwanda
The country, which has had a ban on plastic bags for years, has a reputation for being one of the cleanest nations not only on the continent, but in the world.
Australia 
Sydney's Oyster Bay was the first Australian suburb to ban plastic bags. Twelve towns in Australia are now said to be plastic bag-free—an effort to cut down on the estimated 6.7 billion plastic bags used in Australia every year.
Taxed, not banned
Plenty of other places have chosen not to ban plastic bags, but to discourage them through financial means. There have been taxes on plastic bags since before 2008 in Italy, Belgium, and Ireland, where plastic bag use dropped by 94 percent within weeks of the 2002 ban. In Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, the bags come with a fee.
And, in one lonely case (that I could find) of a reversal on a ban after it was implemented, Taiwan had a ban on plastic bags for three years before it lifted it in 2006.

IBM Creates Plant-Based, Highly Recyclable Plastics

IBM Creates Plant-Based, Highly Recyclable Plastics

by Brit Liggett and Sarah Parsons

IBM researchers announced yesterday that they discovered a method of creating highly recyclable plastics from one of the most eco-friendly materials around – plants. Not only are the material’s components greener than traditional petroleum-based products, the production process uses significantly less energy.

IBM scientists used organic catalysts – catalysts made from organic compounds instead of metals to create plastic polymers that are functional through many rounds of recycling. Traditional plastics can generally be recycled once before the metal in the polymer starts to degrade and it must be sent to the landfill. The new compounds can be up-cycled and down-cycled into many different types of plastics. A plastic bottle can have a new life as a car bumper. Previously it was difficult to remake polymer compounds that retain the strength of the original materials.
The scientists also have high hopes for the use of the new eco-plastics in medicinal applications. Many encapsulated drugs are currently highly toxic because of the metal in the plastics involved. The new organocatalysts plastics could be used to deliver directed cancer therapy drugs safely because the polymers will safely degrade and deliver medicine on site in the body. In addition to all of this great news, researchers said that the new catalysts are, “dirt cheap.”

 

Filtered Water In 2 Minutes with New UV Light Bottle Invention

by Jaymi Heimbuch

Image via James Dyson Award
Most portable water filters use carbon filters, special membranes with microscopic openings, or chemicals like chlorine or iodine to clean the water and make it save for drinking. However, one of the best systems for purifying water is actually with ultraviolet light. But how do you get an ultraviolet light purification system into a small portable water bottle that can be used anywhere? One design and technology graduate has figured it out, and already won the UK branch of the prestigious James Dyson Award for his invention.

According to BBC, Timothy Whitehead, a graduate from Loughborough University, came up with the idea for the bottle while traveling in Zambia. Rather than using chlorine or iodine tabs which take half an hour to work and leave a gross taste in the water, this new bottle first filters particles four microns or larger from the water, then uses ultraviolet light (powered by wind-up) to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. All within two minutes and all without altering the taste.
The Pure bottle is already quite advanced in the development process, including an "original filter designed which filters any soiled water down to 4 micron in particle size (fully scientifically proven); a wind-up Ultra violet light system has been produced, including a custom designed PCB to monitor winding frequency and to give user feedback when the water is sterile. The casing has been designed for both prototype production and manufacture."
Now that the invention has proven itself in the UK, it will face off with other finalists from around the world in October.