Designed by Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni, the bicycle is made with recycled cardboard mixed with recycled plastic bottles and used car tires.

It can carry up to 400 pounds, doesn’t crumble in the rain, and doesn’t melt in fire.

“Basically the idea is like Japanese origami, but we don’t compress the cardboard and we don’t break its structure,” he explained in a press release.

“We overcome the cardboard’s failure points, by spreading out the weight to create durability.”

Despite having received a host of investment offers, the company opted to crowdfund the project instead in order to stay faithful to their social values.

Ultimately, the project is about reusing waste materials and making cycling an affordable activity for everyone.

But this will be no easy task.

In just 45 days, the team hopes to raise a whopping $2 million in order to set up a factory that will allow them to crank out thousands of these suckers, cleaning up landfills and recycling centers all the while.

They have also developed a cardboard wheelchair that will eventually be distributed to people throughout Africa who can’t afford a standard one.

And for just $290, you can own one of the very first to come off the production line, and feel good knowing that your contribution has ushered in a brave new world of cardboard bicycles.

Visit Cardboard Technologies’ Indiegogo campaign if you want a piece of this very cool green action

Read more about cardboard design:

• The $9 Cardboard Bike From Israel: Photos
• Cardboard Mounted Deer Heads for the Eco-Conscious Decorator
• Sanserif Creatius Carves a Cardboard Table with Arabic Devotion

The post $10 Recycled Cardboard Bike Indiegogo Campaign Raises Nearly $20,000 in Two Days appeared first on Green Prophet.

Elmish told Israel 21C that the wheelchair will be made out of less than $10 worth of durable recycled cardboard, plastic bottles and recycled tires, materials.

He added that anything that can be made out of wood, plastic or metal can be made with their material as well, including toys, wagons, chairs for airplanes and cars.

“We’re not building cars yet,” he told the paper. “But I say, ‘yet.’ We believe that nothing is impossible and anything is possible.”

At present, the non-government organization that distributes wheelchairs to people in Africa who can’t afford to buy their own spend $6 million each year purchasing 120,000 metal chairs from China.

Elmish said that they can build a factory for that same amount of money, but then, once it is running, the plant would be able to spin out wheelchairs for next to nothing. Plus, the factory could be staffed by disabled people.

As long as it is easy enough to access old car tires, and we all know there’s no shortage of those in Africa, along with plastic and cardboard recycling plants, the venture could work.

The cardboard wheelchair weighs less than 20 pounds but supports up to 400 pounds, it can resist both moisture and humidity, and there is no maintenance required.

This, the cardboard bicycle, a youth bike and a cardboard electric vehicle are all expected to be rolled out in exactly one year.

:: Israel 21C

Image: silhouette of a wheelchair, Shutterstock

The post Israelis Design Cardboard Wheelchairs for Africa appeared first on Green Prophet.

Could it be a world-changer? A cheap solution to help African kids get to schools and clinics? Israel’s Izhar Gafni (who we interviewed here) had an outlandish idea to create a durable cardboard bike from scratch with raw materials sum totalling about $9. Add in some labor costs and you can get a pretty cheap ride, one worth buying in a world where bike theft is rampant.

News reports are circling around the world that Gafni’s cardboard bike (see photos here) is headed to market. No doubt after articles and videos about his project infected the world’s media. Reuters is reporting:

“When we started, a year and a half or two years ago, people laughed at us, but now we are getting at least a dozen emails every day asking where they can buy such a bicycle, so this really makes me hopeful that we will succeed,” he said.

Hus business partner Nimrod Elmish, Gafni’s business partner says that by using cardboard and other recycled materials there can be a huge change in production norms. Companies could get grants and rebates for local production, offering no real reason to make them in poor and cheap labor markets.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txSboSNQINs[/youtube]

At a cost of about $20, and made on automated production lines, the workforce could employ pensioners and the disabled, while the business model he has penned could work a lot like Tom’s shoes, which gives away a free pair of shoes for every pair sold to a western buyer.

Estimated to last 10 years, the cardboard bike will also weigh two-thirds the weight of a regular bike. If it breaks or melts you can recycle it and buy a new one.

Millions of people are emailing us for Izhar Gafni’s cardboard bike contacts. Please reach out to him via his Facebook page. Ride on Gafni! We are rooting for you.

The post $9 Cardboard Bike from Israel Going to Market appeared first on Green Prophet.

Izhar Gafni, inventor of innovative cardboard bike plans to keep production local, he tells Green Prophet: “I’m not interested in selling to some huge concern that will slap a “Made in China” label on the bike,” he says. “I’d like production to take place in local factories, ones employing challenged or special-needs people.”

Gafni’s green vision expands to encompass, “One hundred future projects made out of cardboard.” Even a cardboard car using solar and human energy.

Why not? ‘Obstacle’ doesn’t seem to be a word that this mechanic without limits recognizes. (Israeli ingenuity with cardboard has already produced no-tools-needed furniture.) “I want to help stop our dependence on petroleum,”  Gafni adds. Since our first post on the cardboard bicycle, readers have been asking questions about it. Read on for answers.

GP:Are the bikes on the market yet?

Gafni: No, my partner and I are still negotiating with investors. We hope to sell in Israel, Europe and the US, when we start production. I want to see the bike anywhere I travel.

We assured Gafni that the cardboard bike already has fans just waiting to snap some up.

GP: How long did it take to produce the bike?

Gafni: It took six prototypes and three years. There’s very little scientific knowledge about cardboard’s engineering and structural limits. I had to find out everything myself, through experimenting. For example, the bike’s water resistance isn’t due to the painted-on colors. It’s due to the cardboard itself.

GP: One reader asked if the bike’s seat is comfortable. What can you tell us about that?

Gafni:  I designed it for comfort. It’s modeled on the British Brooks leather seat. The design may still be modified, or an option such as a bucket seat may be offered. We are working on making the seat height adjustable too.

GP: How long is the bike’s expected life?

Gafni: Two years, maybe longer.

GP: Two rainy winters too?

Gafni: (laughing) Oh yes, it should get through two winters also. Its life will depend on how it’s used, like any other product. It hasn’t been around long enough to say for sure, but I’m confident that each bike will last two years at least.

GP: What other advantages does the bike have to the consumer, beside the low cost?

Gafni: It’s a low-carbon vehicle and good for the environment. In addition, it doesn’t need pre-assembly and doesn’t even need maintenance.

GP thinks: Can this be the end of punctured tires and bicycle pumps?

GP: Tell us a little about previous projects you’ve worked on.

Gafni: I lived in California for years, where I designed the robot that sewed the New Balance company’s shoes. I like to say I sewed President Clinton’s sneakers. In Israel, I put together a press to extract pomegranate juice for the boutique winery Rimon. These are just some of my past projects.

GP: Did you study engineering and design?

Gafni: I taught myself almost everything I know.

Thanks, Izhar Gafni, and we’re holding our breath till the cardboard bike hits the road.

Previous posts about cardboard design on Green Prophet:

• The $9 Cardboard Bike From Israel: Photos
• Cardboard Mounted Deer Heads for the Eco-Conscious Decorator
• Sanserif Creatius Carves a Cardboard Table with Arabic Devotion

Photograph: Uri Ackerman

The post Interview with Izhar Gafni, Inventor of the Greenest Cardboard Bike appeared first on Green Prophet.

Engineers told Izhar Gafni that a cardboard bike was impossible. But he went ahead and made one anyway. An ardent cyclist and skilled mechanic, Gafni found a cardboard bicycle taking shape in his mind. American engineers he consulted solemnly nay-sayed, but he couldn’t let go of the idea, he told the Israeli tech blog NewsGeek (in Hebrew).

The burly man’s eyes twinkle under his mop of curly hair as he tells what made him push it forward.

“My wife told me, ‘If you’re not going to try it, you’re going to drive yourself crazy. Then you’re going to drive me crazy, then drive the entire family crazy. So just go ahead and try it!'” Encouraged by domestic support, inspired by origami, and remembering the success of another “impossible” project  – the creation of jumbo jets – Gafni took his skills and built a road-worthy bicycle out of corrugated cardboard sheets.

The first prototypes worked, but “they looked like delivery boxes on wheels,” Gafni says. Investors weren’t interested. Gafni realized that the cardboard bike needed a more attractive design. With that in place, plus applications of materials to make it withstand moisture, it became a bike that anyone would want to hop onto.

How does the cardboard bicycle hold up? Well, it takes up to 140 kg. in weight. It’s waterproof. If you watch the 6-minute video below, you will see Gafni cycling carefree through puddles. The video is in English.

And once the bike hits the market, what will be the price to the consumer? An incredibly cheap $60, and up to $90 with extra attachments like a removable motor. Production costs of only $9-12 make this eco-friendly bike available even to teenagers with babysitting money.

According to The Fiscal Times, it’s a commercially viable product with potential appeal to the hospitality industry.

Gafni created the cardboard bike with the urban cyclist in mind. The Israeli press points out that it’s so cheap that it’s not worth stealing: in towns like Tel Aviv, where people cycle everywhere, bicycle theft is a scourge. To us at Green Prophet, being easy on the wallet is certainly a plus. But the biggest advantage of this cardboard bike is how gentle it is to the planet.

CLICK HERE for more photos of the cardboard bike.

[vimeo 37584656 w=500 h=281]

Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.

More cool cardboard design on Green Prophet:

•  Cardboard Interior Design Upgrades Community Lobby
• Sanserif Creatius Brings Recycled Cardboard Furniture to UAE
• Nokka Customized Cardboard Furniture

::Newsgeek

Photo of Izhar Gafni’s cardboard bike via The Fiscal Times.

The post Cardboard Bike from Israel Makes Cycling Even Greener appeared first on Green Prophet.