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Digital Camera Forces You to Recycle By Witholding Your Photos
Posted by Kit Eaton at 8:10 PM on August 19, 2008
The Eco Digi Mode camera is a 3-megapixel digital camera that you have to send in to get the images "developed", and the lab sends you back a wallet of photos and the developed film CD of the photos. "Um... what?" you may be now thinking... but that's exactly the design, even though it sounds like the disposable cameras of yesterdecade. The lab either wipes the cam and resells it, or breaks it down for parts—the 2.4-inch screen could go into a mobile phone, for example. They're cheap, at around US$12 in Japan, and the waterproof version could be fun, and I can see the sense in forcing you to recycle, since it's better than tossing a disused camera in the trash. But it's so bizarre a concept it's difficult to understand without a good long think. [FarEastGizmos]
Designer Matt Clark has come up with Innervision: a prototype polypropelene bike designed to be fully recyclable. And, incidentally, to look rather cool indeed. The frame is in two parts, which are welded together: an inner frame with strong triangular truss-structure and an outer frame for a better look. Both split into two, so the bike is easy to manufacture. For now it's made of new plastic, but Matt intends future ones to be made of recycled polypropylene. Apparently it rides well, thanks to that stiff inner body. And it's got a pretty good theft deterrent system: anyone hacksawing it free from a bike lock would have a useless half-bike. Unless they bought the toy 
In between beers, my student days were spent shuttling between at least 10 different homes, and my poor battered library would definitely have benefited from PLoP! This concept from designer Joyce Hong is simply a rigid cardboard bookshelf that collapses up when you need to move it around. It weighs just 4 pounds, and can be extended from two segments up to as big as you like and still remain collapsible. And when you're done with it, you can just PLoP! it in the recycling for eco-friendliness. Simple. [
