Tag Archives: single-use

Circuit board made from paper can be disposed after one use

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While we’ve been enjoying all sorts of electronic devices and gadgets the past decades, one consequence of this is that there is a lot of electronic waste lying around. Most of the components are not recycled or re-used, adding to things that are continually bad for the planet. The alternative is of course to upcycle or find ways to still use these devices or their components in one way or another. Another option would be to come up with components that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Designer: State University of New York at Binghamton

University researchers were able to come up with a prototype for a circuit board made from paper that can be disposed of after just one use. Instead of using the usual metal, resin, and glass ingredients for the components, this single-use circuit board was created from a single sheet of paper. And amazingly, it worked with other fully-integrated electrical components. After using it (unspecified for how long though), you can just burn it or leave to degrade on its own.

They used wax to print the channels on the paper and then melted it until it was soaked by the material. For the areas that did not have the wax, they printed semi-conductive and conductive inks as well as screen-printed conductive metal and a gel-based electrolyte. The final result was a thin and flexible piece of paper with a working resistor, capacitor, and transistor. And when the user no longer needs it, you can just burn it to pieces so no waste is left. Well, except for the ashes of course.

While the single-use circuit board is in itself more environmentally-friendly already than the regular ones, the team is still looking for ways to use non-biodegradable materials for the other components. Depending on how this can be mass-produced and adapted by gadget makers, this can be one small step towards more disposable devices.

The post Circuit board made from paper can be disposed after one use first appeared on Yanko Design.

This puffer jacket is filled with single-use masks and shows the pandemic-related environmental issues!

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The pandemic has led to a huge lifestyle shift and in the bid to stay safe, the environment is suffering from the excessive use of plastic to wrap items, chemicals to sanitize, and the millions (or billions) of single-use PPE that eventually contribute to pollution. There are photographs of medical masks floating in the ocean with the animals and washing up on beaches is a heartbreaking sight. To bring this issue to light, designers Tobia Zambotti and Aleksi Saastamoinen created Coat-19, an icy blue puffer jacket made of discarded single-use masks, organic wool, and transparent recycled laminate.

The designers are based in Iceland that still has a mask mandate. Icelandic winds can be very strong so masks that aren’t carefully discarded blow from the streets into the otherwise pristine environment. To prevent this from happening they collected around 1500 light-blue masks from the streets of Reykjavík, thoroughly disinfected them with ozone gas, and shipped them to Helsinki where they became an unusual filling for “Coat-19” – a modern puffer jacket that highlights this absurd pandemic-related environmental issue.​

Most of the disposable masks available in the market are made with a thermoplastic called polypropylene which is also used to produce poly-fill, the most common acrylic stuffing for cheap down jackets – same material, same function, different look. Some of the light-blue masks were partly filled with organic cotton wool in order to create the puffy silhouette of the trendy oversized jacket.

The outer layer is a semi-transparent breathable and waterproof laminate based made from bio-sources that let the disposable masks be visible.​ There are about 1500 masks that make the filling along with organic cotton wool. While the sight is jarring, it is a reminder we all need to practice safety sustainably. We may come out of this pandemic or learn to live with it, but the climate crisis is not something we can solve with a shot. This is a plea to use alternatives if possible so that your safety in the present doesn’t compromise on the future of the planet.

Designer: Tobia Zambotti and Aleksi Saastamoinen

Made using 3000 Nespresso pods, this installation transforms ocean waste into art

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The Superegg Installation is a comment on our capitalist tendencies and its effect on nature. By combining consumerism and creation into one hard-hitting sculpture, the art piece helps turn human-created ocean waste into an object that sparks conversations while saving the environment. The 6’6″ high structure comes made from 3000 Nespresso and Keurig single-use coffee pods that were pulled out of the ocean. These aluminum pods were then mounted onto aluminum sheets which were finally wrapped onto plywood rings to create the shape of an egg.

The Superegg installation looks like a Fabergé egg from afar, with the thousands of colorful pods forming patterns on it, but the magic is doubled at night, when a light within the installation illuminates the structure, causing it to create mesmeric shadows like tinted glass mosaics at churches and cathedrals. The egg acts as proof of how damaging our consumerism can be on the environment, while being a reminder that we can always turn our waste and wasteful behaviors into something more meaningful and nurturing.

The Superegg is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2020.

Designer: Jaco Roeloffs