DIY Green Blog

Plastic bottle greenhouse

tap — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:38:13 +0000

Look at this interesting greenhouse made out of recycled water bottles!

http://www.bluerockstation.com/plastic_bottle_greenhouse.html

http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/bottle.shtml

The Story of Stuff

tap — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:10:30 +0000

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

This is a 20 min long video that gives an insight about how our society does not care about the environment.

Make A Lenz2 Wind Turbine At Home

gjdj3 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:15:37 +0000

Most wind turbines are projects that end up being very difficult to make. They require a lot of machinery that you don’t have at the local hardware store and a lot of difficult materials to find. This specific wind turbine is great because the only power tools you need are a jigsaw and a drill. The materials are also easy to find.

Check it out here on Instructables.

Storage.

tap — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:19:59 +0000

If you want some storage options, but don’t want to dish out big bucks for store bought ones, why not make some on your own? Heres some tips.

-Find some milk crates, Milk crates have been very popular with the college crowd and makes a great modular storage unit, hold them together with string, bolts or tie-wraps and in less than a fraction of a second, you have cheap storage. Vinyls fit perfectly in them!

-How about water jugs? Randofo on instructables recycled used water jugs and set them up together to create great storage.

- Need something to hold small parts? Use old jars. Why not mount all of them under a shelf? Nail the screw-tops to the underside of a shelf, that way you will always know where they are and reduce your clutter.

-How about a floppy disk pen holder? Reuse those old floppies! Via Matt Shelton

- Hide it in a book! Find a used book and start carving. Howtodostuff.com

-Find old pieces of furniture at the thrift shop, old suitcases, bins and other interesting things you can find at a thrift shop!

- Build your own boxes out of plywood offcuts. Don’t be afraid to modify the plans!

- Make a guitar stand out of Plywood offcuts! (link coming soon!)

- Go to the army surplus and get some old Ammo cases, some of them are in metal and they are even waterproof!

-Use an old cd spindle as tupperware, store your bagel inside!

-Use an old door as a tabletop! Prop it up with sawhorses. Or, find a decent sized cable spool and lay it on its side. Instant table!

-Find two liter shipping crates and create shelves!

IDEAS:

Use old books to create an end table.

Desk created with recycled drawers.

Repurposed furniture

Bookshelf chair

Theres plenty more ways to create storage from recycled items and one can do it very cheaply, please if you have any other ideas, don’t be afraid to add a comment.

Solar Powered Fan

gjdj3 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:44:30 +0000

Here's the fan.

One of the biggest ways that we are un-green is through our energy consumption in the summer, specifically in our use of air conditioning. Some people suggest conserving energy by turning your thermostat 2 degrees warmer in the summer. For me that’s not a good solution because I’m uncomfortable in the heat. What I did is make a solar powered fan to use so that I don’t waste energy on AC. It uses a fan salvaged from a computer and a boost circuit, similar to the one used in an iPod charger.

Here it is, on digg. It links to an Instructable. Solar Powered Fan

Stay Green everybody!

Uses for Tyvek Fedex Envelopes.

tap — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:17:33 +0000

Most of these projects involve reusing these nifty envelopes by means of sewing, cutting and using the provided adhesive to create new and useful things. Since these envelopes cannot be recycled easily why not transform them into something else instead of chucking them into the thrash.

Wallet

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wallet-made-from-Tyvek-mailing-envelope/

http://alexiaabegg.blogspot.com/2006/03/fedex-tyvek-pak-wallet.html

http://newprotest.org/details.pl?736

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tyvek-FedEx-Wallet-with-Change-Pocket/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Express-Mail-Envelope-tyvek-Wallet/

Laptop bag

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laptop-Sleeve-from-a-FedEx-Envelope/

Lunch bag

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-reusable-Tyvek-lunch-sack/

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/06/fedex_lunch_bag.html

Stuff sack

http://www.peak.org/~webdawg/DIYGear/TyvekStuffSack/index.html

Other ideas

Book Covers, Kites, Cd cases, Messenger bag, Cell phone/ Mp3 player protective pouch.

If you want to recycle your leftovers, DuPont has started a Tyvek Recycling program since regular curbside pickups do not accept this type of plastic.

http://www2.dupont.com/Tyvek_Envelopes/en_US/tech_info/tech_environ.html

“For Small Quantities (less than 25 envelopes/month)
Turn any Tyvek® envelope inside out, so the unprinted white surface shows on the outside. Stuff the inside-out Tyvek® envelope with other used Tyvek® envelopes for recycling.

Address and mail the envelope to:
Tyvek® Recycle
Attn. Shirley B. Wright
2400 Elliham Avenue #A
Richmond, VA 23237

For Medium Quantities (more than 25 but less than 500 envelopes/month)
Call 1-866-33-Tyvek® and ask about our pouch program for recycling Tyvek® envelopes. Each pouch holds approximately 200 used Tyvek® envelopes. Collect your envelopes in the pouch and then forward them to DuPont – address label provided.

For Larger Quantities (more than 500 envelopes/month)
Contact Shirley B. Wright, Tyvek® Recycling Specialist, at 1-800-222-5676 or 1-866-33-TYVEK® for information”

Post your creations!