UrthBags

Eco-Chic Purses & Handbags Made From Recycled Materials

UrthBags are hand-crafted from recycled materials by Fair Trade Women's Organizations & Artisans - Purses Made with a Purpose! By owning an UrthBag, you are not only helping to protect our planet, but also to provide jobs to underprivileged women world-wide. UrthBags desire fashion forward owners who choose to live Eco-friendly lifestyles and are looking for a handbag to share it with. UrthBags are durable, ultra-stylish & can be used for almost any occasion. UrthBags come in many different styles and are all handmade from recycled & salvaged materials so you can feel good about owning one while making a bold Eco-fashion statement. From our vibrant Recycled Juice Box bags & chic Recycled Seashell Purses to our ultra-stylish Recycled Newspaper & Fashion Magazine Handbags, you're sure to find one that you'll want to take home with you. So go ahead, starting shopping, fall in love, save the world (OK, maybe that's a stretch) & feel good about an UrthBag on your arm. Source: Urth Bags

                                

Mix and Match Sharon Golan’s Concept 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 tried to find solutions to this ecological conundrum, with Nike introducing a shoe recycling program and other designers creating multi-functional and multi-fashion shoe designs. The solution, as Israeli designer Sharon Golan proves, does not have to be boring. Making a versatile, sustainable shoe that lasts longer and is lighter on the resources (due to its versatility) can be fun.

Enter Shell 256, Golan’s shoe design with a collection of 16 modular shoe components that can be combined and used to create 256 different variations of shoes.
Exhibited in Jerusalem a couple weeks ago, the shoes are a combination of four separate recycled plastic pieces that are held together with multi-colored silicone rubber bands. Any of the components can be changed.

Sometimes sustainability means not getting bored with the same old, same old, so Shell 256 definitely addresses that issue. (Maybe Golan should team up with the “New Dress a Day” blogger to form year-round fresh and sustainable outfits for the chic ecological woman.)
“The idea was you buy four pieces, this is the amount of pieces you need to create one shoe, ” says Golan. “But if you want to change your look, you can buy only one extra part and it changes the whole look of the shoes.”

“That gives you, the client, more options and it gives the industry, the company, the option to have you as a client all the time,” she pointed out.
Culled from: Green prophet

CAMPING GOES TECH AND GREEN

 
It’s time to say bye to smoky inefficient cooking outdoors using firewood. All this thanks to BioLite and its CampStove. According to the product description, gone is the need to continuously fan the wood as in traditional wood stoves, the stove just does the job for you.


BioLite has developed a wood-burning CampStove, which they intend to release in spring of 2012. Targetting backpackers, campers, and even families in developing communities, the BioLite CampStove converts heat energy into electricity, which then powers a small fan that helps improve the wood’s combustion. It also has a USB port that can charge a cell phone or power-up a LED light in case you are cooking at nighttime in the middle of whatever.
BioLite claims that its CampStove requires half the amount of wood needed to burn a traditional stove and cuts smoke emissions by up to 95%. You do not need to cut a whole tree to fuel your cooking, just put loose branches and other materials like pine cones, underbrush, coconut husks, rice husks, and even cow dung, into the CampStove and start boiling the broth. This makes it convenient for campers who worry about carrying cans of petroleum to power their stoves.

The BioLite CampStove weighs just below two pounds and can boil a liter of water in less than four minutes. It has also won awards prior its retail release, including the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment and first place in the 2010 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open. The company hopes that profits from this product will help subsidize the cost of its HomeStove model for indoor use. Source: Biolite

Mugs Like No Other

A photo story of mugs creatively desingned. These shots were collected from around the Internet.

Image source: Rockingfacts

Beastly Motorcycles By Barend Massow Hemmes

The Massow Concept Cycles designed by Barend Massow Hemmes use the iconic company logos the bull and the jaguar. According to him, "These concepts are my artistic representation of the logos and in no way do I wish to deface or ridicule them. I am just showing that it's possible to use each logo in a unique way and to incorporate them into a functional piece of machinery."

The Bull is still in the concept phase, while The Leaper, with the jaguar, is a real motorcycle featuring a Sportster-based V-Twin 1200cc engine, frame made from Steel Tubing, glass-fibre fairing, a headlamp in the jaguar’s head, removable magnetic mandibles, and glossy black lacquer paint for the body, which is made from stainless steel.

His works have gotten wide acclaim, with the Jaguar motorcycle going for a price of £320,000, or about $567,000.
Image Source: Massow Design