BEAGLEY-BROWN DESIGN

Designosaur Christmas Tree

Designosaur — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 13:22:29 +0000

Hello readers, Happy Christmas! I thought you might like to see my Christmas tree.

The tree itselft I bought from Kristi Tamming through her Etsy shop. It’s made of reclaimed corrugated cardboard and is 1.4m high. The paper chain I made from some paper I had in the house and I bought some felt balls because they are made from wool and look cute. It’s finished off with high efficiency animated LED fairy lights and a handmade star from recycled fabrics on top. Hope you like it!

Designosaur’s Christmas Tree

SWEEEP Kuusakoski – What Happens to our Recycled Electronics?

Designosaur — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:28:00 +0000

We are getting used to the idea of recycling our newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles now in the UK. In 2011/12, we recycled 43% of our household waste. Although this is more than ever before, the rate is levelling off. Perhaps we’ve done the easy bit and now we need to start recycling more of our old computers, mobile phones and toasters etc.

This isn’t so simple for the householder because councils rarely collect such items. Instead you have to take them to your council’s “Reuse and Recycling Centre“, Freecycle them (if they’re still working) or some retailers also take them. It’s also not so easy for the recyclers – firstly because electrical products normally contain hundreds of different components and materials, bonded or fixed together. Secondly because they often contain hazardous materials which need to be separated out.

On 16th November I attended a workshop in Kent – part of Royal Society of Arts‘ The Great Recovery programme. I’d never been to a recycling plant for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) before and I wanted to see what might happen to my old iPod.

Products at the start of the recycling process

SWEEEP Kuusakoski in Sittingbourne is “One of the UK’s leading dedicated WEEE processing facilities”. For 5 years it’s been collecting our old computers, toasters, TVs, fridges etc., separating the materials out and selling them on to make new products. In 2012 it was named ‘Recycling Business of the Year’ and it’s entirely powered by wind and solar energy.

The fastest and cheapest way to disassemble old electrical products is to chop them into tiny bits. There are then various ways of separating the materials out, including electromagnets, floating off materials in different density liquids, eddy current separators and centrifuges. You don’t do this if, like a laptop or TV, the product contains mercury as this will be immediately released as a poisonous gas. At SWEEEP, products with batteries are also not chopped up so that the batteries can be separated and recycled.

PCBs separated out

Recovered Metal

Recovered Batteries

Recovered wire coils from motors and transformers

Copper wire – £3500 a tonne!

LCD laptop screens – disassembled by hand to remove hazardous materials

One of the most cutting edge operations at SWEEEP is their new machine which can remove lead from the glass in old TV screens. Incredibly, one TV can contain a whole kilogram of lead.

New machine at SWEEEP to remove lead from TV glass

Materials like lead and copper are increasing very quickly in value, so there’s more commercial incentive than ever to recycle electrical. Copper prices have tripled in the last three years. Whilst aluminium goes for about £600/ton, you can now get something like £3500/ton for copper.

One of the conclusion I drew from the day was that, for the product designer and manufacturer, the avoidance of using hazardous materials is really important. Firstly because it makes the product much easier to disassemble (by shredding) and secondly because the materials are much easier to process. Not all WEEE ends up in responsible, mechanised centres like SWEEEP. More often it is exported to places like China and India where it is taken apart by hand by un-protected workers who are directly exposed to the hazardous materials. This is one reason to process the UK’s waste in the UK. Another, as championed by The Great Recovery programme, is to keep the value of the materials in our economy and reduce our dependence on mining and importing new materials. In other words, having a ‘circular economy’ where materials go round in continuous cycles.

We need more SWEEEPs. We also need less WEEE, but that’s another story.

Source for metal prices: http://www.greengatemetals.co.uk/scrapmetal/prices/
Source for recycling stats: http://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/environment/waste/wrfg23-wrmsannual/

Global Sustainability Jam 2012 – London

Designosaur — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:23:11 +0000

Across Asia, Europe, Australasia, North and South America and the Middle East this weekend, ‘Jammers’ teamed up for the 2012 Sustainability Jam. At the London Jam, I was invited to be one of the mentors guiding the 80 or so paying participants, grouped into teams, towards ideas to help create a more sustainable world.

In London we met at The Hub, Westminster, which has always had entrepreneurship and sustainability at its heart. The brief was simply (((HEART)))BEATS, leaving the jam deliberately open for ideas to progress in different directions.

The energy levels, enthusiasm and sheer volume of work combined to produce ideas and final presentations of an amazingly high standard. Congratulations must go to the participants as much as to the (volunteer) organisers who did a brilliant job.

Global Sustainability Jam 2012 – London

My favourite projects ideas from the weekend were:

LightLife, “A tool to co-create a unique wedding for free-thinking socially conscious people who want to make a difference”.

Cyclinks, “Improved Barclays Bike redistribution network system leading to a wireless payment system”

FreeFlow, “Give it, don’t bin it! Making sharing stuff and skills as easy as sharing photos – via a mobile app”

Stranded Wisdom, “Share in the wisdom of others.” This is a truly moving website that cuts to the fundamentals of what it is to be human.

and

Star Gazing St., “We want buildings to turn off their lights at night, so Londoners can enjoy a clear starry sky.” An art project that cleverly invites corporate sign-up.

All the projects were created under the Creative Commons Licence and were uploaded to the Global Sustainability Jam website during the Jam.

One team member asked me “Is it really feasible to come up with a viable business proposition in one weekend?” and the Jam, for me, has shown that it is. Three of the teams, all with members who’d never met before, said they planned to meet up again and talk about how to take their ideas forward. Certainly, with enough enthusiasm behind them, some of these ideas could be successful and have a positive impact on the world.

Regardless of whether or not any of the ideas make it to fruition, everyone clearly learned something, enjoyed themselves, had their minds expanded, met some amazing people and left feeling inspired. I know I did.

Kebony, Accoya, Thermowood and Engineered Alternatives to Tropical Hardwoods

Designosaur — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:50:05 +0000

I’ve recently been doing a project that’s needed a hard, durable and dimensionally stable wood. Traditionally, tropical hardwoods have been used for projects like these, but is there not an alternative that doesn’t destroy the rainforests?

Hacking down forests and not replacing them causes the extinction of species (tropical rainforests are home to half of all species), the destruction of ecosystems (which provide clothes, fuel, timber, medicine and shelter to 300m people). Oh, and climate change, of course.

Wood is a great material – it’s recyclable, natural, waste and energy efficient, biodegradable, non-toxic, strong and beautiful. We don’t need to feel that we can’t use it because of deforestation as there are alternatives to destroying rainforest.

One solution is to ensure that the forests from which the timber comes are replanted (“sustainably managed”). The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are two of the best established certification organisations. Their logo on a product is a sure sign that buying that product is not causing deforestation. Many more people have heard of these organisations now but still few realise that there are hardwoods with the certification. Some timber suppliers such as Timbmet specialise in supplying certified timber, offering certified Iroko, Meranti, Sapele and Red Grandis amongst others.

The second solution is to treat softwoods so that they become as hard and durable as hardwoods (or even harder and more durable).

Kebony

Kebony structure. Image: www.worldarchitecturenews.com

Kebony is a product made by treating FSC or PEFC certified softwoods with furfuryl alcohol made from biological waste materials. Under pressure and heat, the fluid penetrates the cell walls of the structure and polymerises the material.

The end product aesthetically resembles Teak, Ipé, Mahogany and other tropical varieties of wood but if left untreated outside develops a silver grey patina. It is commonly used in architectural cladding and has increased dimensional stability, durability and hardness compared to untreated softwood. Kebony has the official Nordic eco-label, the Swan eco-label. It is available made from Maple, Scots Pine and Southern Yellow Pine.

Accoya

Black Accoya on a church in The Hague, Holland. Image: www.accoya.com

Accoya, by Accsys Technologies is a similar product. It is also made from FSC or PEFC certified softwoods, but treated using an acetylisation process. Wood contains hydroxyl groups which absorb and release water, causing the wood to expand and contract. When these groups are converted to acetyl groups, swelling and shrinking are reduced by 75%. Hydroxyl groups are also believed to initiate decay, and Accoya is claimed to last 50 years above ground and 25 years in ground or fresh water. It is non-toxic, insect and UV resisant and requires being treated in outdoor scenarios to avoid turning black, although sometimes the black appearance can look great.

Thermowood

Thermowood. Image: www.metsawood.com

Thermowood is a term that describes Finnish-grown, PEFC (Pan European Forest Certification) certified pine that has been heated and dried in a controlled way up to 200 degrees C. The process improves durability and stability and makes the product suitable for external cladding.

Lyptus

Lyptus decking at Bury St. Edmunds Golf Club. Image: www.woodlinkuk.com

Also worth checking out is Lyptus from Woodlink, a PEFC certified Brazilian Eucalyptus used for decking. The colour variation in the finished product is particularly beautiful.

Most of these materials are being used for architectual cladding at the moment but there’s plenty of opportunity for other applications. Kebony is pushing this through their public seating concept Spine.

Kebony Spine Public Seating. Image: www.kebony.no

If you’ve seen any other designs, please leave a comment below…

Designersblock 2012 Highlights

Designosaur — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:16:48 +0000

There were a few products and materials that stuck in my mind after a quick jaunt around this year’s Designersblock:

Kate Sibley‘s paper jewellery was inspiring, both in terms of embracing fickle fashion in a sustainable way and the choice of material.

Recycled gold findings (hooks) can be swapped between pairs of earrings allowing the wearer to change their jewellery as fashions and fancy dictates with lower environmental impact. I love the interchangeable aspect to this jewellery, it’s an approach that could successfully be applied other fashion items. However, I also loved Kate’s material choice. I had assumed that the jewellery would be made from recycled or FSC paper.. but no… it was better than that…

The earrings and necklaces are made from stone ‘paper’, a material produced from the waste products of the quarrying, construction and/or building industries. The paper is made with approximately 80% Calcium Carbonate ‘dust’ which is bound together with a non-toxic HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) resin. Hmm, yes, that is plastic… however the end product is completely biodegradable and the process does not produce waste water – which is possibly the main eco advantage of this paper. 1 tonne of virgin wood pulp paper produces 16,000 gallons of waste water and recycled wood pulp paper produces 9,000 gallons of water. Stone paper is also tear, weather and grease resistant making it a better choice for jewellery than conventional wood pulp paper. Stone Paper is available under various brand names including; Stone Paper, Fiberstone, Terraskin and ViaStone.

Another product that definitely shone out was LFLECT by Lost Values.

LFLECT is a range of reflective knitwear that will ensure you are seen at night, especially useful for cyclists. The beautiful and very innovative range includes scarves, ties, hats, some of which will cover your cycle helmet and bag straps.

Pop-it, also by Lost Values, was a fun way of exploring the waste created by one of my favourite manufacturing processes, laser cutting. The cute bird ring is sold with the disc that had been cut to form the ring, the waste material. However this can be put to good use in transforming the ring into a brooch.

GLO, an ambient light by Draigo, drew my attention and when I got close enough to realise what it was made of I loved it even more.

GLO is made up of approximately 200 plastic milk bottle tops, threaded around an LED loop. The nice thing about GLO is that it’s not obvious that it’s made from waste. It was the colourful, pretty light effect that drew my attention… not its recycled credentials. Brilliant.

Lastly, I was pleased to see so many Plumen energy efficient lightbulbs being used throughout London Design Week. I’ve been in love with them ever since discovering and writing about them back in March so it’s great to see them being used so creatively and extensively.

Recycling CD’s and Jewel Cases…

Designosaur — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:36:10 +0000

What can you do with stacks of unwanted burned CD’s, DVD’s and the inevitable pile of jewel cases that go with them?

Commercially produced music, film and games discs can be sold to websites like Music Magpie, swapped on sites like Swapshop or taken to your local charity shop, but not discs that have been burned. Having recently had a good old sort out, I managed to generate a 10kg stack of burned CD’s and jewel cases. But what to do with them? They take 100′s of years to decompose in landfill.

CD’s and DVD’s are made from almost pure Polycarbonate. Jewel cases are injection moulded from Polystyrene. Both of these materials can be recycled for use in other applications. The Environmental Protection Agency has produced a poster about the lifecycle of a DVD or CD which is interesting.

Unfortunately doorstep recycling generally won’t accept compact discs and jewel cases, so the challenge is in finding a recycling plant that will accept them and then in physically getting them there.

There are a number of companies across the UK that will take CD’s and jewel cases for recycling. I ended up sending mine to London Recycling (owned by Viridor, tel. 020 7511 8000).
Wirral based company, Polymer Recycling Ltd‘s website has a great explanation of their recycling process for compact discs:
1. Items are separated into compact discs, jewel cases and paper packaging/inserts,
2. Printed literature is baled and pulped for use in other paper products,
3. Jewel cases are granulated and turned into pellets (using an extrusion process during which contaminants are removed) for use in other applications,
4. PRL have a patented process for the chemical free removal of paint, aluminium and data on the discs which is then re-used as insulation material,
5. The compact discs are granulated, blended and compounded into high quality, injection moulding grade Polycarbonate for use in other applications.

Unfortunately, unless you have over half a tonne, you will need to deliver your old CD’s and jewel cases to these processing plants yourself. I chose to fork out £15 to post them to London Recycling, which is a lot and I imagine would put most people off completely. So come on, councils, please add CD’s and jewel cases to your home collection recycling service.

RCA Show 2012: VeloPresso, a Human-Powered Coffee Shop

Designosaur — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:49:05 +0000

VeloPresso is a “pedal-powered mobile coffee-making machine for off-grid selling of quality espresso and its derivatives with a compact footprint and near-silent ultra-low-carbon human-powered operation – fine coffee, no electricity, no motors, no noise.”

Velopresso. Image © Ivan Coleman, source: www.velopresso.cc

Image © Ivan Coleman, source: www.velopresso.cc

Following on from my post about the Innovation Design Engineering show at the Royal College of Art, I’ve since had a chance to visit the Design Products section of the show and one project stood out. The VeloPresso, by RCA graduates Amos Field Reid and Lasse Oiva is stylish, innovative, conceived with sustainability in mind and the prototype beautifully detailed and engineered (with help from a number of sponsors).

You can simply ‘change gear’ on the VeloPresso to engage the pedal-powered coffee grinder for a freshly and quietly ground brew. You can’t boil water by pedalling, though, and so the prototype uses camping gas. (19 July 2012 update): Amos and Lasse have commissioned Imperial College to help with their research into fuel sources for boiling the water and the results show that there are sufficient sugars in waste coffee grounds to turn into ethanol. They inform me “The next wave of research (which we are currently exploring ways of funding) will specifically address how to extract these sugars from waste coffee most efficiently and from there distillation is relatively simple. In parallel we are developing practical models for the collection of this waste resource.” Good stuff! I love the idea of a product using its own waste as a power source.

You can find out more about VeloPresso at www.velopresso.cc.

Velopresso. Image © Ivan Coleman, source: www.velopresso.cc

Velopresso at the degree show. Image: Designosaur, with permission

RCA Show 2012 – Three Interesting Projects from Innovation Design Engineering

Designosaur — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:18:44 +0000

Yesterday I had a quick peek at some of this year’s RCA show, in particular at Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) where there was a great mix of projects. Here are three that caught my eye:

Esource by Hal Watts
Esource is an electrical cable recycling system designed for cottage industry recyclers in developing countries. It's a beautifully simple solution to a clearly identified need.

A bicycle is used to power granulate cables, replacing the toxic burning that is currently used to extract the valuable copper wire from PVC coated cables. The copper can then be separated using water and is worth more because it is unburnt. This is an inspiring project, its effectiveness is down to a sound understanding of where and how the product is used. Brilliant.

You can find out more about this project including a short video at Hal Watt's website.

Open Shop by Matt Batchelor

I love products or projects that involve the end user in the manufacturing process. Which is why Matt Batchelor's project caught my eye. A pop-up factory encouraging young people in the process of creating consumer products, in this case skateboards, thereby empowering them.

The idea of a skateboard factory itself is not particularly innovative but the idea of making it a 'pop-up' installation and using it as a social tool is a good one.

NIDO by Julene Aguirre-Bielschowsky

Image: Julene Aguirre-Bielschowsky

NIDO is a modular insulating system for Mexico's northwest. The tiles are made from local wine and shellfish industry waste and are easily installed by families in need of warmer winters and cooler summers.

You can read more about NIDO on Julene's website.

So, there are 3 very different projects from this years RCA show. But there are many more that are worth a look. The RCA show 2012 is open until Sunday 1st July. The show is split over two sites; Kensington (including IDE, Ceramics, Textiles) and Battersea (including Design Products and Sculpture).

It's interesting to note that a new organisation, SustainRCA, was created just last year. Led by Clare Brass (previously from the Design Council), SustainRCA's mission is to inspire, encourage and support sustainability thinking across the RCA. Part of this is the Sustain Show and Awards for which both Hal Watts and Julene Aguirre-Bielschowsky's projects have been shortlisted this year.

IN site: The Impossible Hamster

Designosaur — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:23:42 +0000

I recently attended a talk at Bristol’s Big Green Week entitled Growth on a Finite Planet. One of the speakers, Andrew Simms, showed an amusing, short animation perfectly demonstrating the topic. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing The Impossible Hamster.

www.impossiblehamster.org

Bristol and Newcastle: Britain’s Green and Pleasant Cities

Designosaur — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:20:40 +0000

I recently posted about eco-cities Masdar in Abu Dhabi and DongTan in Shanghai. But what about Britain? Does Britain have any sustainable cities already? It’s all very well creating eco-cities from scratch, but more than half the people in the world now live in cities and these cities weren’t designed from the ground-up to be sustainable. As such, we also need models of how cities can become sustainable.

Bristol
Bristol is in the final three cities shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital in 2014. It will be competing against Copenhagen and Frankfurt. I find this pretty impressive, Britain’s certainly not known as one of the greenest countries in Europe. So what makes Bristol so green?

In 2008, the year Bristol was named Britain’s most sustainable city, Forum for the Future launched a 10-year plan to “help make the greater Bristol area the most sustainable city-region in the UK” and make it a model green city.

Bristol also hosts green events, such as the Big Green Week, which is on RIGHT NOW until Sunday 17th June and has over 100 events.

Other green credentials and initiatives which Bristol can boast include:

The West of England Carbon Challenge, a 4-yr commitment to measuring and reducing carbon emissions signed by more than 100 local businesses
WalkIt, a walking route planner to get people out of their cars
In 2008 Greater Bristol was chosen as England’s first Cycling City and received £11m from the Department for Transport to transform cycling. See www.betterbybike.info
Refit West, a scheme to help homeowners reduce the energy and resource consumption of their homes
In 2009 Bristol joined the Covenant of Mayors and set more ambitious CO2 reduction targets than the EU and UK, to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 from a 2005 baseline
Bristol has one of the most comprehensive air quality monitoring networks in the UK
Bristol has been actively managing noise for over 10 years
It boasts an impressive rise in recycling and composting rates and high scores on water quality, waste collection and green spaces
Bristol is also a ‘Transition Town’, working to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, including ventures such as the Bristol Pound which is designed to support independent businesses

British Sustainable City Rankings
Forum for the Future ran the ‘Sustainable Cities Index’ from 2007 to 2010, ranking Britain’s 20 largest cities in terms of their environmental impact, quality of life and future-proofing. The results are below:

Sustainable Cities Index Rankings

We see that Bristol has actually dropped behind Newcastle – so why did Newcastle do so well?

Newcastle
Well, Newcastle’s achievements include:

Installation of 580 electric vehicle charging points
Low average carbon footprint of 6.8tonnes/yr
‘Commonwheels’ car club
An urban bees programme
An extension of household recycling facilities to include flats
Plan to turn the banks of the Tyne into Britain’s largest centre of windpower
20mph speed limits
‘no power hours’ at schools

What about London?
London has also done well in the rankings, although despite its efforts to be “an exemplary sustainable world city“, it did have the worst air quality of any British city and the largest urban footprint on the local ecology. Because of this it doesn’t appear in the top four.

Bristol for European Green Capital!
I’m rooting for Bristol for European Green Capital in 2014. I find it very encouraging that Britain can compete in this area with European countries which have had sustainability deeply routed in their cultures for far longer than Britain has. Go Bristol!

SOURCES

‘Bristol named as Britain’s most environmentally sustainable city’, The Telegraph

West of England Carbon Challenge, Forum for the Future

‘Shipshape, green and Bristol-fashion’, The Guardian

‘Top 10… greenest UK cities’, The Ecologist

‘Bees help keep Newcastle at top of green city table’, The Guardian

Bristol City Council Website, Cycling

Refit West page, Forum for the Future Website

Expert Evaluation Panel – Synopsis Technical Assessment Report, European Green Capital Award 2014