Colorful plastic bags are both the canvas and the paints in Aviva Sawicki’s artworks. Plastic bags are a ubiquitous and un-eco-friendly material that many sustainable and upcycling designers have tried to reuse. One designer has turned plastic bags into shoes, another has made plastic bag wallets, and plastic bags can even be used as crocheting […]
Origami and some creativity saved these Earl Grey tea bag wrappers from the recycling bin and made them functional again. We are constantly surrounded by paper. It is in our mailboxes, surrounding our dry food items, and pretty much everywhere. It is all too easy to toss unwanted or used papers into a wastepaper basket […]
Used copper bullets found at a firing range transform into sculptural objects incorporated into rings. Bullets are, objectively, ugly things. They have an ugly purpose, and are not much to look at, either. But what would happen if you removed a bullet from its violent context? Could it be beautiful? Israeli designer Adi Zaffran Weisler […]
Philips has created a plastic, urban beehive. Honey, I am home! When I told my husband that I want to build an urban beehive on the roof, he thought I’d flown the coop. It’s enough that we have 15 chickens running around the urban homestead. Bees sting, he reminded me. I, like many other “informed” […]
Environmentally-friendly designed straw bale houses are energy efficient and earthquake resistant. Pakistan's poorest groups rebuild lives through Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB) micro-financed project.
Made mostly from used and vintage scraps of fabric, Timo Handmade’s new creations have a warm, old-world feel. Fabric scraps can be used for lots of things, and we’ve seen designers refashion them in all kinds of ways – like use them to make repurposed fabric shoes, purses made from upholstery fabric samples, and even […]
Upcycled, easily recycled and sturdy cardboard is the base material for Nokka’s furniture. Cardboard is one of those miracle materials that has recently been rediscovered and used widely by sustainable designers. It is easy to come by, easy to upcycle, and easy to recycle – and no less importantly, it is surprisingly strong and durable. […]
Breast cancer is the boogey man lurking underneath our breastbones, and organizations committed to eradicating the disease are the super heroines wearing pink capes, except when they are selling something that can cause cancer. That Susan G. Komen’s fragrance ‘Promise Me’ may be laced with cancer-causing ingredients is a blessing in disguise. The world needs […]
Lightexture’s lamps are beautiful and energy efficient. Sustainable designers interested in the field of light fixtures often focus on making the lamp base out of recycled or repurposed materials, and don’t necessarily think about energy efficient light. We’ve seen lamps made out of industrial pipes and chandeliers made out of ice cream spoons, but when […]
Mosaic artist Ruslan Sergeyev and the “My Wave” recycled ceramic art creation on Netanya promenade. Festival includes a mosaic of lost socks. Photo by Igor Sarni Israel’s eight-day Sukkot festival, now ongoing, often includes a number of motifs and local themes which give emphasis to projects that help preserve the environment. This year is no […]
Studio Ubico has upcycled found wooden pieces back into their original form, a tree. Studio Ubico, an upcycling and environmentally conscious design studio working in Tel Aviv, joins the ranks of other sustainable designers who are trying to make good use out of materials that are already sourced (instead of going out and taking more […]
Ron Arad’s bike is up for the auction block: These wheels will add some spring to your ride. Unlike the car, which comes in many shapes, colors, and sizes, the bicycle has not been subject to as many design transformations and over the years has pretty much retained its classic shape. Here and there there […]
Industrial designer Michael Tsinovsky brought together Israel’s many local styles in his ‘asli’ furniture design. When it comes to consumerism, local is almost always better for the environment and for the local economy. Local is better when you’re buying produce at the farmer’s market, when you’re supporting local artisans and craftsmen, and when you’re purchasing […]
PET bottles hark back to their glass bottle predecessors using traditional glass blowing techniques. Plastic bottles have pretty nasty reputations for being bad for human health and the environment. Very few people are arguing that plastic bottles (and especially bottled water) are a good thing in the long run. Some companies, such as Israeli fashion […]
To all of you out there who used to make seashell necklaces on the beach as kids – did you ever think of making one of these? Beautiful beaches can be found all over the Middle East, but unfortunately many of them are plagued by unnatural waste. During the hot summer months it is a […]
Find a good spot and plop down in your picnic dress for an impromptu meal on the grass. Picnics are great because they allow us to appreciate the great outdoors (sometimes motivating us to take more efforts to protect it). But sometimes picnics are not so great because they result in picnic littering, or the […]
Candlesticks that have lost their partners find a home in this upcycled menorah. Most flea markets and second-hand stores have them – candlesticks either with or without their partners. Solitary candlesticks often tend to be left behind, since they usually come in pairs. But thanks to this menorah design from Reddish Studio (the same people […]
If you think these sunglasses are made from tortoise shell, guess again. Accessories may be one of the most important places for an ecologically minded designer to start. Accessories are the victims of quickly changing trends and fads, and so their unsustainable fashionable-ness makes their ecological sustainability greatly needed. We’ve seen other green designers tackle […]
Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub (chair). Designers often talk about “clean” design, with crisp lines and an absence of frou-frou decoration. But apparently there’s another kind of clean design – the kind that’s clean because it’s upcycled from objects formerly used to keep people clean, like a bath tub. The Bath […]
The seven modular folds of the Loop Chair grant it a twelve-fold function. Modular: constructed with standardized units or dimensions for flexibility and variety in use. It’s the “flexibility and variety in use” part that makes modular design so sustainable, because if one item can be modified and serve a range of functions then you […]
Finally, some eco-friendly shoes for the fashionable green men out there. We’ve seen an abundance of eco-friendly shoes here on Green Prophet of late – from Sharon Golan’s mix-and-match Shell 256 shoes to Daniela Bekerman’s “ze o ze” shoes that let you change the heels to fit your mood. But what’s an eco-friendly man to […]
From small-scale butterflies to large horses, Reuven Fields’ scrap metal sculptures breathe life into discarded pieces. It takes a lot of energy to mine metals from the earth, and significantly less energy to recycle metals into something new. But if you can upcycle used metal scraps into something else (such as an upcycled aluminum can […]
Click your heels three times and say: there’s no thing like eco-fashion! Eco designers (and designers who are interested in fun and whimsy) have been tackling the shoe issue for some time, finding ways to make them both more sustainable and versatile. Big shoe titans like Nike have created shoe recycling programs in order to […]
Avinoam’s sawdust benches and stools are made from the remains from someone else’s… well… benches and stools. The crunchy granola types out there may think of composting toilets right away when they hear the word ‘sawdust’, but not those eco-chic greenies out there. Sawdust, a highly available yet often discarded material, is full of possibilities […]
Mix and match the endless possibilities with Sharon Golan’s Mr. Potato-esque DIY shoes. When it comes to fashion, and sustainable fashion, shoes may be one of the worst offenders. Not only do shoe fashions change rapidly, but they also tend to wear out faster than our other articles of clothing. Shoe designers and producers have […]