Eco Friendly Inventions That Will Change the World
By Green Lotus
Recycling Gets Greener
With apologies to the Lady with the same name, I for one am absolutely Gaga over a couple of promising new eco-friendly products I heard about recently. These are two illuminating, energy saving inventions that are gaining a lot of attention and accolades, not only from within the design community, but from green conscious consumers everywhere.
Garbage Goes Green
Every time I visit Manhattan I’m struck by the energy, the vibrancy and the culture of the city. Unfortunately, I’m also knocked out by the scourge and smell of garbage strewn about on the sidewalks. New York attracts litter like flies to dog dirt. Of course that litter comes from people who just can’t seem to wait for the next garbage bin. With pedestrian traffic being what it is in NYC, one would think there would be trash receptacles on every corner. Alas, there are not. With that problem in mind, designer Haneum Lee came up with a near perfect solution; One that has global green possibilities.
Lee’s product is The Gaon Trash Powered Street Light. It not only gets the trash off the sidewalks, it illuminates your nice clean street as well. Just toss your trash into the handy disposal compartment and it’s turned into earth friendly compost. Methane from the compost powers the street lamp and saves the city megawatts in electric bills. The invention is directed at large metropolitan cities such as New York where garbage abounds. The Gaon invention is a hungry little green gadget that needs regular feeding to operate as promised. Perhaps Lee will come up with a clean electrical back-up source for those days when garbage accumulation is at a minimum .
Other food for thought is that the street light, while eco-friendly, is designed to work with biodegradable garbage. This makes things a bit tricky, after all, how many people do you think will stop, think and consider whether their trash is organic? Few are going to throw away their half-eaten burger without chucking in the wax wrapper along with it. Still, Utopia wasn’t built in a day so I still have to give this invention a Green Thumbs up.
New Life for Old Batteries
One of the most eco “unfriendly” products out there is the disposable alkaline battery. Batteries just don’t decompose in a nice way. Despite the manufacturers clever marketing techniques, calling them “ultra advanced” or “high-tech” or bunny drum-beating marvelous, they’re still just nasty metal containers filled with mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, all of which can seep out and contaminate the earth – that is unless they are properly disposed.
Many, well known manufacturers of alkaline and lithium batteries actually contest this claim and have issued statements saying that their batteries may be safely chucked out with the rest of the garbage. This has been widely debated.
Frankly, I’d venture to guess that people who are faced with a dead battery just toss it in the trash with a modicum of guilt. Most people wouldn’t know how to recycle a dead battery anyway. Happily, that may change in the very near future thanks to an illuminating invention called the Energy Seed Lamp.
Here’s How It Works:
Developed by Sung Woo Park and Sunhee Kim for Samsung, the Energy Seed Desk Lamp and it’s big sister the Energy Seed Street Lamp work by making good use of the “residual” energy of dead batteries. They may be dead according to your wireless mouse, but they’re very much alive according to Energy Seed.
You simple insert your dead batteries into convenient holes in the "seed" base and the energy is converted into a doughnut shaped super efficient LED light. I love the moss green central rim and the fact that the overall design looks likes a flowering plant. Plant a seed (the dead battery), and watch the light blossom.
The Street Lamp version works the same way. Just pop your duff batteries into the handy cylinders while you walk the dog and the Energy Seed Street Lamp will pool the power and light up the LED. The cylinders accommodate different battery sizes, so no battery is left behind and those kindergarten skills of putting the right peg in the right hole will finally be put to good use.
When the battery container gets full, the batteries can be collected. At least the person or company responsible for collection will know how to properly recycle the batteries so they won’t wind up in a landfill.
Sung Woo Park won Gold in the 2009 International Design Excellence Award for this Eco-Friendly invention. I’m sure we’ll see more from Park in the near future.
Sustainable Gets the Green Light from Designers
The design industry is seeing lots of sustainable products these days, in fact, if your company isn’t turning out Green products, designers aren’t going to specify your stuff. I know the trend because I’ve been involved in this industry for several years now and it’s proving to be true.
The future of the planet is looking brighter thanks to these new Eco-Friendly technologies and brilliant new Eco-Conscious designers like Sung Woo Park and Haneum Lee. Hopefully it’s just the beginning of a cleaner, greener future.
Live Green and Live Long!
© Copyright Green Lotus, 2011. All rights reserved.
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Green Lotus is television writer, producer and performer, Hillary Miles. After a long career in the media, she now finds time to write about her...
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Comments
Very informative hub. Thanks.
I really enjoyed reading this! I really hope that both of these ingenius invention do find away into our daily lives--they're just too good to pass up. You come of with some of the best ideas for hubs--I probably wouldn't have heard of these nifty inventions were it not for you.
Samsung really has come a long way. I have a Samsung Intrepid smartphone that really is amazing. And speaking about batteries, it's battery life it gets 6+ hours (talk time) on one single charge! I don't think it's a coincidence because no other cell phone out there even comes close!
Thanks Green Lotus!
Wow this is just beautiful, useful and for me - so touching ! If human minds would be so consctructive and innovative, this whole world could be green.
Thank you, you certainly sent light to my day.
Hi Creativeone! So good to see you again. My thanks for your kind comments. Love and Light right back to you.
Hello dohn! I really appreciate your words and support. It keeps me on my toes. I totally agree with you, there are so many young inventors dedicated to green technology. Would you believe Sung Woo Park is just a student?!
I did think of you when writing this post, having read about your Intrepid! Kudos to Samsung too!
Hi Tatjana - don't you just love those "flower pot" desk lamps? I want one (or two). I'll be keeping my eye out for when they go on sale. I've been reading too many "doomsday" Hubs and needed to write about something positive. Glad to have brightened your day. Thanks!
Hello Pam! Thank you for stopping by. You are always so supportive to so many Hubbers. What a great positive attitude.
The Energy Seed Desk Lamp is a winner. Would love to have the concession. Just wondering, if you run out of dead batteries, could you use live ones or would they overpower - get it? - the lamp.
Thanks for a very interesting and well-written hub as always, Green Lotus.
That's a great question for the inventor! You can check out his web site by clicking on his name in my Hub. Thanks for the compliments doc!
Great hub. It is good to hear young minds are coming up with these wonderful solutions. I love the simplicity of the solutions they came up with. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks lelanew. Sometimes the simplest solutions work the best. You have to really get out of the box to see it thought!
Great! What a fantastic advocate of information you are! I have given this the thumbs up! Well done my green friend!!!
The trash powered street lamp is amazing if the bugs could be worked out. Trash on the roadside is my biggest pet peeve. There's no reason for it! (BTW, I enjoyed your PP hub, didn't have time to comment) The lamps could be put in Walmart parking lots and people could dispose of their garbage there, instead of throwing it out of their car window...
Loved the hub! Very interesting
As always Shaz, you say such nice things. Thanks girlfriend.
Hi Jai! Yes they are awesome aren't they? I hope this is the wave of the future...starting now!!!
nikeman64 - Welcome and thanks so much for commenting. I really appreciate it!
Interesting!! I'd be up for the Gaon Trash light - I'm a swotty pants I know but I recycle when I'm out and about - I say get people off the junk food and they'll have no probs in recognising their organic waste!! Ok, perhaps an idealist!
I like the lamp too - never heard of it but it looks like a polo mint at the top! I didn't know about the battery debate - we can recycle them at the supermarkets here but I'd much prefer to plant them and have a polo lamp!
That's interesting, very interesting. It's amazing what the human mind can invent. If only we could adopt good and green behaviors before being covered by rubbish. Both thumbs up Green Lotus.
Thanks hypno! The inventions are really out there, the problem is that it takes a long time to actually get them to market. We need stuff like this now. I would really like to see both of these lamps in operation before the end of the year. (make that the end of the month :)
Quite lining the idea of the lamp myself.
Nice to see you 777! Thanks for commenting. I hope the lamp makes it to market soon too :)
The energy seed lamps are fantastic, wow what an invention. Those things should be global!!
Hi mason. Don't you just want one? or two? Can't wait till they are readily available.
I'd like to go out and buy one (or three) of those energy seed lamps right now. The streetlights, once the composting issue is sorted, is fantastic! I agree with you that now is the time we should be doing these things - not later. Thanks for bringing the future into view :-)
SG I can't wait either! There are many new products that have been developed that prove "the future is now". If only things to get to the marketplace more quickly, we'd all be better off. Thanks for stopping by to comment.
Fantastic innovations! I build eco homes and want to get this stuff to put in them. Technology sort of got us into this mess I believe it can get us out of it.
Phoenix you are so right. I'm also into promoting and supporting eco tech. If we each to our part it can make a "world" of difference.
That is amazing. You have so many batteries that still have some power but not sufficient to be of real use!! Also LED lights are so efficient and themselves good for the environment as they last 30000 hours and have no mercury hazardous waste.
Nice to meet you lindsays..sorry I'm so long in acknowledging your comment. much thanks.
I love this hub.
HHanna- Glad you did :))
Thank you for these amazing information! This is the only possible future for our World: eco-friendly ideas!
fucsia- You're welcome. if only everyone realized it is the only possible future :)
you have great inventions wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
sheenpandita - Thanks! ..and just think..I wrote this last year. I'm sure it needs an update showing even greater green stuff.
awesome! we are making progress
Paul - You're right and it's nice to be able to report something positive.
wow, very impressive. Thinking outside the box is great. Someday I'll invent a life changing product. Inspiration is everywhere
axonn16 - I'm glad you found inspiration here! The possibilities are endless if you have the dream and drive. Cheers!
a very useful invention..nice. may i request you to write the procedures and estimated cost of making this wonderful invention?
james - Thanks for stopping by. The inventions featured in the article were created by designers Haneum Lee and Sung Woo Park. For more information just search for their companies also listed in this Hub.
creativeone59 2 years ago
Thank you Green Lotus for a very informative hub on Eco
Thank you Green Lotus for your hub on Eco Friendly Technology. Thank you sor sharing. Blessings. creativeone59
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