Wood is a very versatile building material, which can be used again and again for different building projects. One such example of this is the use of recycled wooden shipping containers and packing crates to build green affordable housing. Our ancestor were using very similar recycling methods to build their houses before the use of bricks and concrete and with our natural resources running low, its only logical to look for more sustainable sources for building materials. As long as we look after our natural wood supplies, there is no reason why wood whether recycled or new can become our primary building materiel?
With the world providing more eco friendly alternatives, why not try improving your home with wood reclamation, it’s the perfect cheaper eco friendly alternative to buying new, and you will also be helping combat the decline of the rainforests. Reclaimed wood can come in many forms such as window frames, door, wall panelling and flooring which can save you huge amounts of money when re-renovating your home. With a large demand for new housing and increasing building costs, using old reclaimed materials is extremely beneficial to reducing growing housing costs and the global impact to the environment as a whole.
With everything becoming electronic and people looking for greener alternatives to everyday products, still one of the most thrown away items is news paper, only used for one day then thrown away. Well this is about to change as the boffins at Cambridge university have come up with an electronic news paper that is entirely made of plastic. The revolutionary new e-paper will dramatically reduce the world’s paper wastage as the new e-paper can be remotely updated on a daily basis, and could also be used for books, magazines and is due to hit the streets in early 2010. At this stage it is only black and white which make it difficult to view magazine pictures, but I’m sure there will be a colour version of the device available shortly after.
60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is under threat from deforestation and climate change. If nothing is done the rainforest could be completely devastated by 2030 which will have massive global impact in terms of temperature and weather changes. The Amazon rainforest produces over 20% of the world’s oxygen, so a depletion of 60 percent will dramatically reduce the world’s oxygen levels and increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The rainforests are pretty much our life blood and it astounds me how industry can deplete this natural resource without replanting more trees, essentially turning the Amazon rainforests into a working forest.