Results tagged “recycled materials” from The official blog of Vat19.com

I'm so glad there are insanely creative people out there who can re-purpose what most of us would call "trash" into something useful and one-of-a-kind. Many times you may not even realize that a "new" product has been made out of "old" recycled products.

Take this belt, for example. If I hadn't told you so in the title of this post, would you have ever guessed that the belt is made from a bike tire and the buckle from a bike cog? OK, maybe you cycling aficionados would, but to the rest of our naked eyes, it just looks like a really cool and edgy belt. Those who wear it are not only making a style statement, but an "I care about the earth" statement too!

There are tons and tons of other re-purposed products out there (for example, Vat19's LP Record Coasters), and I encourage you to check them out. Maybe you'll find some inspiration to create your own re-purposed goods!

At first glance, they may look like regular old neckties. But in fact, the "fabric" used to make these Sonic Fabric ties is 50% recorded audio cassette tape. Yeah, I don't know how the heck they do it, but they've taken old mixed tapes and woven them into ties.

If that isn't awesome enough for you, these ties can actually be "played". Because the magnetic quality is maintained through the weaving process, you can still "hear" your tie by running a tape head over it. (A tape head is that little thing inside cassette tapes that touches the tape.) The designer says that when you do this, you're actually playing 4 or 5 strands of tape at once, or 16 to 20 tracks, so it kind of sounds like scratching a record backwards or radio static.

Needless to say, these are the coolest ties EVER, and the man in your life would totally love one. And if you don't have $90 to spare, fear not. The man in your life would also love any of these awesome gifts.

"Scrap wood" never looked so good.

These beautiful Log Bowls by Loyal Loot Collective are handmade from locally reclaimed trees in Edmonton Canada. The folks at Loyal Loot, with the help of local crafts people, hand-select their trees, turn them by hand to create the smooth and even "bowl", and then finish them off with acrylic paint and a water based gloss seal.

I just love the contrast of the rough and rugged tree bark against the smooth, vibrant colors of the bowls. They're gorgeous! And versatile, too. In sizes ranging from 2-10", they would be great to hold candy, jewelry, keys, or just serve as eye-catching centerpieces.

I think almost anyone can agree that cigarette butts are kind of gross, especially when you find them lying around at places like the playground, where any curious little kid can pick them up and, if they're very curious, put them in their mouth. Perhaps even more disturbing than this, however, is that, according to Butts Out, about 4.3 trillion of these butts are tossed per year, and they only begin to break down after lying around for 12 years. 12 years! Now, there are people like me, who simply complain about these things, and then there are people who actually do something about them. These insanely inventive people take our yucky trash and manage to turn it into something useful ... or at least something much more interesting than what they originally started out with. Let's begin with those crummy cigarette butts, shall we?

1) Recycled Cigarette Butts as Clothing

Yes, that vest is made out of cigarette butts. Well, partially. This design is the work of Chilean designer Alexandra Guerrero, who, through the Mantis Project, has found a way to purify cigarette filters so that they can be mixed with natural wool and woven into cute, rustic-looking garments such as the one above. The vests, ponchos, dresses, and hats in this collection contain 20% recycled cigarette filter material. Pretty awesome, no?

2) Recycled Cigarette Butts as Artwork

This little guy is the work of artist Tom Deininger, and is made of unraveled cigarette filters. He's cute, for sure, but unfortunately he also completely reeks of tobacco. Bummer.